9:40 a.m.
A monument to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, has been vandalized.
A spray-painted message of “Black Lives Matter” was visible on the statue Thursday and is one of several monuments across the country that have been vandalized since nine black church members were slain in Charleston.
A small crowd gathered to look at the vandalism. Mitch Brown said he supports limiting the use of Confederate flags in public spaces but not the destruction of property.
Davis is buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, which is home to 22 former Confederate generals and thousands of Confederate soldiers.
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9:30 a.m.
Five uniformed law enforcement officers, several wearing vests, stood in front of the church where the first funeral for a victim of the massacre at a historic black church in South Carolina is to be held soon.
About an hour and a half before the service for Ethel Lance was scheduled to begin Thursday in North Charleston, two other officers with a police canine exited the church.
Then, a florist truck delivered flowers.
Lance’s funeral was to start at 11 a.m.
Later Thursday, services for Sharonda Coleman-Singleton were scheduled. Funerals for the other seven victims of last week’s shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were set for other days over the next week.
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8:20 a.m.
The chief magistrate who solicited sympathy for relatives of a man accused of fatally shooting nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina, church has been replaced.
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a replacement for Charleston County Chief Magistrate James Gosnell
The order doesn’t say why Chief Justice Jean Toal replaced Gosnell, who remains a magistrate judge. His term as chief was to expire at the end of June.
Gosnell’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. Local media outlets report that Lionel Lofton said his client told Toal on Tuesday he didn’t want to be reconsidered for the chief position.
During a bond hearing for suspect Dylann Roof, Gosnell expressed sympathy for Roof’s family, as well as the victims’ families.
Gosnell said: “There are victims on this young man’s side of the family. We must find it in our heart, at some point in time, to not only help those who are victims but to also help his family as well.”