Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston (original) (raw)

U.S.|Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/us/church-attacked-in-charleston-south-carolina.html

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Police officers outside the church.Credit...Richard Ellis/European Pressphoto Agency

June 17, 2015

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A white gunman opened fire Wednesday night at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, S.C., killing nine people before fleeing and setting off an overnight manhunt, the police said.

At a news conference with Charleston’s mayor early Thursday, the police chief, Greg Mullen, called the shooting a hate crime.

“It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church while they are having a prayer meeting and take their lives,” he said.

The police said the gunman walked into the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church around 9 p.m. and began shooting.

Eight people died at the scene, Chief Mullen said. Two people were taken to the Medical University of South Carolina, and one of them died on the way.

Image

A man knelt across the street outside the Emanuel A.M.E. Church after a shooting on Wednesday in Charleston, S.C.Credit...Wade Spees/The Post and Courier, via Associated Press

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