Charleston, S.C., needs our hope, love and prayers. So does America.
Several weeks ago, Americans watched cell phone video of a white police officer in North Charleston as he shot a black man in the back after a traffic stop. The only crimes appeared to be a non-functioning brake light and the black man’s fear.
Then Thursday, we all woke to see another Charleston horror: Nine people shot and killed in an Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Bible study service by a 21-year-old white man in what police describe as “a hate crime.”
A police mug shot of the suspect, Dylann Storm Roof (and surveillance photos of him reaching for the door handle of the church) show a light-haired young man with a bowl haircut and big eyes. He looks 15, not 21. He looks as though he should be smiling and playing ball – not so hate-filled that he told those in the church: “I have to do it (kill these people). You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” His quote was recited by a woman whom he let live so she could “tell” what happened.
Read more
* Local faithful mourn, pray for delivery from Charleston violence* Charleston mayor on fatal shooting: ‘It was an act of “pure, pure concentrated evil’