Tragic Bible group welcomed devil to its table

A 5yearold girl was the youngest at the prayer meeting — and its biggest miracle.

She survived by playing dead, one victim’s family said.

In all, a dozen of the faithful had gathered to study Scripture Wednesday night: the pastor, a minister, a librarian and other longtime church members, the oldest in her late 80s.

It was just after 8 p.m. when a lanky young man with a bowlshaped mop of hair entered and joined the group, which gathered in a cafeterialike meeting room in Charleston’s Emanuel African Method ist Episcopal Church.

The visitor, identified by cops as Dylann Roof, 21, wore a gray sweat shirt, rumpled green slacks and beatup brown sneakers.

Still, he was welcomed, apparently without question, by the group.

Photos obtained by CNN show Roof sitting in a plas tic folding chair at a paper-strewn table. Tywanza Sanders, 26, took a images just minutes before the maniac opened fire. Sanders was among the dead.

Roof had asked specifically for the pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator, and chose a seat at his side.

Roof wouldn’t stir for almost an hour, a survivor told cops.

At one point, the pastor, in a green dress shirt and sitting at the table’s head, flashed a smile, a photo obtained by CNN shows.

An American flag hangs in the background.

It may never be known how closely Roof listened to the words of faith and salvation that filled the paneled room in the oldest AME church in the South.

At 9:05 p.m., as the meeting ended, police said, Roof stood, announced he was there “to shoot black people,” and unleashed hell.