Charleston church shooting
The Charleston church shooting, also known as the Charleston church massacre, was an anti-black mass shooting and hate crime that occurred on June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed, and one was injured, during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest black church in the southern United States. Among the fatalities was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. All ten victims were African Americans. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in U.S. history and is the deadliest mass shooting in South Carolina history.
| Charleston church shooting | |
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People mourning the deaths at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church; image taken June 20 (three days post-shooting) | |
Charleston Charleston church shooting (South Carolina) Charleston church shooting (the United States) Charleston, South Carolina | |
| Location | Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| Coordinates | 32°47′15″N 79°55′59″W |
| Date | June 17, 2015 c. 9:05 – c. 9:11 p.m. (EDT) |
| Target | African American churchgoers at a church congregation |
Attack type | Mass shooting, mass murder, domestic terrorism, right-wing terrorism, hate crime |
| Weapons | Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun |
| Deaths | 9 |
| Injured | 1 |
| Perpetrator | Dylann Roof |
| Motive |
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| Verdict | Guilty on all counts |
| Convictions |
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| Trial | United States of America v. Dylann Storm Roof |
| Sentence | Federal Death (de jure) State 9 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 95 years |
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Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, had attended the Bible study before opening fire. He was found to have targeted members of this church because of its history and status. In December 2016, Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. On January 10, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes. Roof was separately charged with nine counts of murder in the South Carolina state courts. In April 2017, Roof pleaded guilty to all nine state charges in order to avoid receiving a second death sentence, and as a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He will receive automatic appeals of his death sentence, but he may eventually be executed by the federal justice system.
Roof espoused racial hatred in both a website manifesto which he published before the shooting, and a journal which he wrote from jail afterward. On his website, Roof posted photos of emblems which are associated with white supremacy, including a photo of the Confederate battle flag. The shooting triggered debates about modern display of the flag and other commemorations of the Confederacy. Following these murders, the South Carolina General Assembly voted to remove the flag from State Capitol grounds and a wave of Confederate monument or memorial removals followed shortly thereafter.