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Obama on Charleston shooting: 'I refuse to act as if this is the new normal' – live updates

Dylann Roof appears in court.
Dylann Roof appears in court. Photograph: Screengrab

Summary

Here’s a final summary for today:

  • Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old suspect appeared at an emotional bond hearing in Charleston at 2pm ET. Though only 13 minutes long, we heard from the judge, the suspect himself and the victim’s families who offered Roof forgiveness.
  • New details of the shooting emerged on Friday afternoon, as the arrest warrants were released to the public.
  • NAACP national president Cornell William Brooks called the shooting an “act of racial terrorism” in a powerful speech on Friday. He also said that the confederate flag “must come down” from the South Carolina state capitol. Meanwhile, Rick Perry has called the massacre a “drug-induced accident”.
  • South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has voiced her support for the death penalty to be used in the case against Roof. Charleston Mayor Joe Riley however has said that he doesn’t personally support the death penalty.
  • A portrait of Dylann Roof as an apparently committed racist has emerged throughout the day

That’s it from us today on the live blog, thanks for tuning in.

For more on the Charleston shooting, check out all of our stories here.

For Twitter updates, follow my colleagues Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington), Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) and Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland), who are on the ground in Charleston. Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) is in Columbia.

People are filing into the College of Charleston TD Arena for the vigil now, due to start at 6pm.

Here’s a copy of the program:

Roof family issues statement on shooting

The family of Dylann Roof has just issued a public statement, extending their “deepest sympathies and condolences” to the families of the victims.

Words cannot express our shock, grief, and disbelief as to what happened that night. We are devastated and saddened by what occurred. We offer our prayers sympathy for all of those impacted by these events.

We have all been touched by the moving words from the victims’ families offering God’s forgiveness and love in the face of such horrible suffering.

Our hope and prayer is for peace and healing for the families of the victims, the Charleston community, and those touched by these events throughout the state of South Carolina and our nation.

Largely echoing his comments from Thursday on gun violence, the president said he was not resigned, and had faith that the country would eventually do the right thing on the matter:

Gun violence, “Costs this country dearly”, Obama said.

“More than 11,000 Americans were killed in 2013 alone. If congress had passed some common sense legislation after Newtown, after a group of children had been gunned down in their own classroom, reforms that 90% of the American people supported” ... “ we might still have more Americans with us. We might have stopped one shooter. Some families might still be home. Y’all might have to attend fewer funerals. And we should be strong enough to acknowledge this. We should be able to talk about this issue as citizens. Without demonizing gun owners, who are mostly law-abiding.

... Some reporters took this as resignation. I am not resigned. I have faith that we will eventually do the right thing. I was simply making the point that we have to move public opinion. We have to feel a sense of urgency.

... At some point as a country, we have to reckon with what happens. It’s not enough to express sympathy. You don’t see this kind of murder, on this scale, with this kind of frequency in other advanced countries on earth.

... What’s different is that not every country is awash with easily accessible guns. I refuse to act as if this is the new normal.”

President Obama has addressed the Charleston attack at the US mayors conference:

“As much as we grieve, this particular tragedy, it’s important to step back and recognize that these tragedies have become far too commonplace.”

The vigil at the College of Charleston TD Arena will start at 6pm.

DoJ is investigating possibility of 'hate crime' or 'domestic terror'

The Department of Justice has announced that it is investigating whether the Charleston church slayings could be hate crime or domestic terror, the Associated Press is reporting.

There has been much debate surrounding the definition of the crime committed at the Emanuel church, with some commenters arguing that the mass shooting should be classified as an act of terror.

“Terrorism, at least in our national imagination, springs from an ideology of insurgence,” writes The Guardian’s Jamiles Lartey. “Terrorism is radical. It seeks to upset and overturn a society, and to shake it to its foundations. But in America, there are few ideologies less insurgent than the doctrine of white supremacy.

[...]But, “the rush to pin some people’s unwillingness to call the killings an act of terroron a subconscious bias towards or against the individual who committed the act obscures another important factor in how we choose to interpret, and in turn, identify them.

Roof’s alleged acts were, by all indications, driven by a violent and extremist interpretation of an ideology that is as old as America itself. The murder of nine innocent black people because of their race doesn’t cut against the American grain in the same way that the spectre of Islamist terrorism does – it rides the grain all the way to its logical conclusion.

Updated

New details of shootings released

Some new details of Wednesday night’s events are beginning to emerge from the arrest warrants just released. Among the details are:

  • Roof entered the church through a side entrance.
  • Roof spent an hour studying with the parishioners at Emanuel church, before pulling out his .45 caliber handgun and striking his nine victims. All victims were hit multiple times.
  • “Prior to leaving the bible study room he stood over a witness to be named later, and uttered a racially inflammatory statement to the witness.”
  • The father and the uncle of the suspect identified him and his car to Charleston police after photographs of Roof leaving the building were released to the public.
  • The suspect’s father confirmed to police that the suspect owned a .45 caliber handgun.
  • .45 caliber shell casings were recovered from the crime scene.

Mullen warns that the flow of information will no longer be as quick as it was during the manhunt for Roof. He says the police force will not jeopardize the successful prosecution of Roof by giving out too much information, since the investigation is still ongoing.

Updated

Wilson will not be taking questions. Charleston police chief Mullen is now speaking.

Updated

Wilson recounts a phone call she received from senator Pinckney, in which he expressed support for her team’s work. She said she and her staff will take inspiration from Pinckney’s call during Roof’s prosecution.

Her priority are the victim’s families, she says. “They need the time and space to mourn and to grieve, and we will give them that.”

“Now is not the time to discuss the death penalty.”

Updated

Prosecutor Wilson is now speaking.

“We will serve justice.”

“I know it’s frustrating for yall, but as we move through this, the rules are different [in this case.]” And she mentions the rules limit her from stating certain details of the case.

Updated

Prosecutor Scarlett A Wilson is expected to address the media shortly.

The emotional hearing lasted a total of 13 minutes, but we heard from the judge, family members of the shooting victims and from the suspect himself.

Roof alternated between looking straight at the camera and down at his feet, expressing no emotion as consecutive family members of the victims continued to stand and offer the man – who allegedly murdered their sons, mothers and grandfathers – forgiveness.

Updated

On the nine counts of murder, the judge says he does not have the authority to set bond.

On the weapons charge, he sets bond for $1m.

No representative of the Pinckney family is present to speak. The statements from the family members conclude.

Updated

The sister of DePayne Middleton-Doctor says:

I’m a work in progress and I acknowledge that I’m very angry. [DePayne] taught that we are the family that love built. We have no room for hate. So we have to forgive. I pray God for your soul. May God bless you.

Updated

Alana Simmons, the granddaughter of Daniel Simmons, speaks next:

Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof that they lived and loved.

Hate won’t win.”

Updated

Roof is simply staring at the ground throughout.

Felicia Sanders, Tywanza Sanders’s mother, speaks:

We welcomed you Wednesday night to our Bible study. Every fibre in my body hurts. And I’ll never be the same. Tywanza is my son, but he was my hero. But as we say in bible study, may God have mercy on your soul.

Updated

Myra Thompson’s relative, Anthony Thompson speaks, addressing Roof:

We would like you to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give you life to Christ. So that he can change it. So that you can change your ways no matter hast happened to you, and you’ll be OK.

Updated

The judge asks whether there are any family members of the victims present, as they are allowed to make a statement to the court. Members are present from the families of Sharonda Singleton and Ethel Lance.

Ethel Lance’s daughter addresses Roof:

I forgive you. You took something very precious from me. But I forgive you. Have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people. May God forgive you. And I forgive you.

Updated

Roof can be seen staring blankly at the ground, as the judge reads the list of charges.

When addressed by the judge, he looks up at the camera.

The judge tells Roof that his first court date is set for 23 October at 2pm. His second court appearance date: 5 February 2016 at 9am.

Roof is told he has the right to a preliminary hearing. The judge now asks Roof questions, to clarify his age, his address and whether he is unemployed.

Roof answers quietly but politely, addressing the judge as “Sir.”

He says he is 21 and he is unemployed.

Updated

The judge says to the court, as Roof watches via video link:

Charleston is a very strong community. We have big hearts. We are a very loving community and we are going to reach to everyone, all victims and we will touch them.

We have victims, nine of them, but we also have victims on the other side. There are victims on this side of this young man’s family.

We must find it in our heart to not only help those who are victims but to also help his family as well.

Updated

The judge has entered the courtroom.

The suspect can be seen via video link, accompanied by two guards.

Updated

The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland sends these updates from outside the courthouse:

Outside the the Centralized Bond Hearing Court in North Charleston, family members arrived in small groups for the hearing scheduled to start at 2pm.

Some held hands and all were escorted by Charleston County Deputies in the sweltering 95 degree heat. None stopped to talk to the large crowd of media. The court is surrounded by officers who earlier had deployed a bomb squad and K-9 units to walk the perimeter of the facility.

Charleston court families arrive
Charleston court families arrive at Dylan Roof hearing Photograph: Oliver Laughland

Dylann Roof is being held at the adjacent detention Center and will appear via videolink before Judge James Gosnell on nine counts of murder and firearms charges. Gosnell does not have the authority to set bond due to the severity of the charges.

The small courtroom is expected to be so packed with family members that a second courtroom with video link is being made available to reporters before the hearing begins.

Updated

While we wait for Dylann Roof to appear in court, my colleague Amanda Holpuch spent the morning in Columbia, where Roof lived as recently as march:

No one answered the door on Friday at the home in Eastover, North Carolina, where Roof lived as recently as March. Lush plants, a stately American flag and a private property warning sign stood outside the property, which stands about 100 miles away from the site of the mass killing at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“He just seemed real quiet and kept to himself,” said Kim Fleming, manager of Mr Bunkys, the general store across the street on Garner’s Ferry Road, a two-lane highway that is a popular route to South Carolina’s coast. Fleming said she had met Roof several times. “I just couldn’t believe it was someone walking around here,” she said of the shooting. “This is not the norm.”

Read the full dispatch here.

Family members of the Emanuel church shooting victims are arriving at the courthouse:

Summary

Here’s an updated summary on what we know so far:

ABC4 reporter Stacy Jacobson reports that Roof is locked up in a cell next to Michael Slager – the police officer charged with killing unarmed black man Walter Scott:

Updated

Meanwhile, out on the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Friday he didn’t know if the Charleston shooting was racially motivated, writes my colleague Sabrina Siddiqui:

“It was a horrific act and I don’t know what the background of it is, but it was an act of hatred,” Bush told The Huffington Post. When pressed again, he still would not say.

“I don’t know. Looks like to me it was, but we’ll find out all the information,” Bush said. “It’s clear it was an act of raw hatred, for sure. Nine people lost their lives, and they were African-American. You can judge what it is.”

Earlier Friday, Bush spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, DC, an annual gathering of social conservatives. During his remarks, the former Florida governor paid tribute to the victims in Charleston.

“I don’t know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes, but I do know what was in the heart of the victims,” Bush said in his speech. “They were praying. They were learning and studying the word of the Lord. In times like these, in times of great of national mourning, people of faith, all of us must come together and at least reflect on this and fortify our strength and love of Christ, love of God to be able to continue to go forth.”

Bush added that the shooting had a “big impact” on him and called on the audience to “continue to bear witness to the truths that God acts through us.”

Bush was scheduled to campaign in Charleston on Thursday but canceled his events there immediately after news of the shooting emerged.

Updated

“A little bit of racism is a dangerous thing,” Brooks says, to reporters’ questions at the press conference.

“When are we going to turn things around?”, Randolph says.

He tells those thousands of African-American South Carolinians who are not registered to vote, that they ought to be ashamed of themselves, before encouraging everyone to register to vote in the next presidential election.

“Control what you can control,” Randolph says of voting in presidential elections, including the removal of the confederate flag.

Brooks has turned the mic over to Dr Lonnie Randolph Jr, the NAACP state president for South Carolina.

The NAACP stands with the families of these victims, with this church.

Leaves the crowd with this thought: the NAACP is 160 years old. “We were founded in the wake and in response to a former racialized violence called lynching,” Brooks says. “In 2015, we are fighting, racial profiling, injustice in the criminal justice system. We will fight against this form of racial bigotry and violence, because we believe in this country and our constitution. And we believe this crime does not represent us.”

“This is not who we are.”

“We wil stand together in this moment of crisis.”

“We have to ask ourselves the question of, is this a matter of a lone shooter with a singular hatred?”, Brooks said. “Is the right terminology a lone shooter or a domestic terrorist?”

“This was an act of racial terrorism and must be treated as such.”

NAACP national president says confederate flag must come down from state capitol

Brooks says the nation must examine the racial hate underlying the shooting.

This wasn’t just a shooting, said the NAACP leader, but a mass shooting: “This was a racial hate crime and must be confronted as such.”

South Carolina should not have the confederate flag waving in the state capitol, Brooks says.

Some will assert that the confederate flag is merely a symbol of years gone by – a symbol of heritage, not hate. But when we see that symbol lifted up as an emblem of hate ... as an inspiration of violence, that symbol has to come down. That symbol has to be removed from our state capitol.

Tensions over the flag that hangs at the state capitol have been renewed since the shooting, as my colleague Tom McCarthy reports.

Updated

Brooks said this is a time for Americans to come to grips with its values and reckon with its policies.

“While there is a climate of caring, there is also an atmosphere of hate. If these exist side by side ... unless we address the underlying racial animus of this crime, we miss the point.”

“This tragedy hits close to home,” Brooks said.

“We come to this place at this moment, in this historic city,” a city in which he said he spent a lot of time as a child as his grandfather and uncle owned barbershops not too far from Charleston. He grew up nearby in Georgetown.

The idea that a pastor can gather his flock, to study the Bible in his church, he said, “in that place, in that moment” a stranger who was extended the hand of welcome, welcomed into the house of God could spend an hour in fellowship and study, and take up a gun and lay 9 people into untimely graves - tragic deaths - is “unconscionable” .

“It is morally incomprehensible. It is a flesh and blood obscenity in our midst.”

We as a nation, are quite simply hocked by this crime. That it toko place in God’s house, in the holy city of Charleston, North Carolina. “It is a living breahing contradiction

This crime, is not merely crime perpetuated against a church, a pastor, against nine congregants. It is a hate crime.

This is a hate crime, he said. “We are all as such victims.”

“This is a moment where those who indoctrinated, jho ;ed this young man down a racist path” who taught him to embellish his car with a confederate flag, which is still at the state capitol, he notes . “This is a moment in which we say to them, that White Nationalist movement, the purveyors of hate,” he said. “We as Americans of every hue and heritage, will not subscribe to this hate.” We will not be turned around by the religion of hatred.

“When wednesday night bible study reconvenes, you will find us there.”

Updated

Cornell Brooks is now speaking.

The NAACP press conference has started. Charleston Chapter President Dot Scott and NAACP National president Cornell Brooks will speak

Despite 24 hours of national grieving over the killing of nine churchgoers in Charleston, momentum toward fresh gun-control legislation remained at a near-standstill in Washington on Friday, write my colleagues Sabrina Siddiqui and Dan Roberts:

White House officials claimed all possible presidential efforts had been “exhausted” after previous mass shootings and said Barack Obama did not anticipate action from Congress either, since he was “very realistic about the political realities”.

“If you go back to 2013, when the president worked very hard to exhaust every possible avenue to tackle this issue – in fact, we completed 23 executive actions – we didn’t leave anything in the cupboard on steps that we could take to address this,” spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters as Obama travelled to a political fundraiser in Los Angeles.

Schultz’s comments were even gloomier than Obama’s had been during a brief statement on Thursday responding to the mass killings, in which he said the country would have to reckon with gun violence “at some point” but acknowledged that the “politics in this town foreclose[d] a lot of those avenues right now”.

Read their full report here.

The Guardian’s Erin McCann writes that Obama’s gloom might have to do with the fact that the president has had to address an incident of mass shooting more than a dozen times during his presidency:

After Arizona, where congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, he spoke of hope. After Newtown, where 20 children and six teachers were shot dead in their classrooms, he spoke of a nation’s broken heart. On Thursday, after nine people were shot dead in a church in Charleston, he spoke of despair.

There are other shootings where Obama has remained silent, or not engaged with issue of guns or the cause of an event. But when he has, the president’s responses have varied from anger to exasperation to sadness, nearly every time vowing that such events must not happen again.

Read her full piece here.

Michelle Obama has spoken out about the deadly Charleston church shooting while visiting military families at the Vicenza Air Base in Italy.

‘My heart goes out to the people of Emanuel’, the First Lady said.

“My heart goes out to the people of Emanuel, and to the people of Charleston. I pray for a community that I know is in pain, and with the hope that tragedies like this will one day come to an end.”

My colleague Oliver Laughland is at the courthouse in Charleston, ahead of Roof’s 2pm hearing, where he spoke with April Cox, 29, from North Charleston:

“I came here to support Charleston, my community,” Cox said. “I’m here for the victims, I’m here to support them. I want to see justice even though we may not get it today, at this hearing.”

Cox said she did not know any of the victims. She is not sure she will get into the hearing, she said. Family members of the shooting victims are expected to come to the courthouse today.

The Charleston branch of the NAACP will be holding a press conference at noon:

Apart from the main vigil which will be held tonight announced by Riley, three other vigils will also be held:

Adventist Community of Metro Charleston, Shiloh SDA Church

  • Dorchester Waylan Community
  • 3914 Dorchester Road, North Charleston
  • Friday, June 19, 6 p.m.

East Cooper Baptist Church, Worship Center

  • 361 Egypt Road, Mount Pleasant
  • Friday, June 19, 7 pm

Without Walls Ministry Prayer Tent

  • Located on the corner of Lee and Meeting Streets in Charleston
  • Saturday, June 20, 7 p.m.

We will update this post with information if more vigils are announced.

The mayor’s press conference is now over.

Mayor Riley addressed media questions about the nature of race relations in Charleston.

“We in America are never taught African-American history,” Riley said. “We don’t know the story.” He said people are not taught about the history of slavery and the Jim Crow period.

Riley said that there is a plan in place to build an International African American Museum in Charleston.

“There are lots of things we can do in our country to enhance the dialogue about race. “To get out of the minds of evil people”, the hateful thoughts, like Roof’s. But Riley concedes it’s very difficult to do so.

Asked about the racism in his city, Riley said that “Charleston is a loving community,” and one where all different communities live very closely together, for which Charlestonians are grateful.

Roof, Riley reminds the crowd, didn’t grow up in Charleston but came [to Charleston] from 100 miles away. His actions are not representative of this community, he adds.

Asked about Governor Haley’s comments on the death penalty, Mayor Riley says he is not personally a proponent of the death penalty - even though this case would merit it. He said he is of the belief that the death penalty “collectively, over time, adds to the violence.”

But that’s the law in South Carolina, he said, and he has no control over it.

Riley gave an update on the Mother Emanuel Hope fun, set up to help the families of “the victims to handle the great expenses, as well as the church”. Pinckney had been trying to raise funds to build an elevator in the church.

There will be another fund that will allow us to address Pinckney’s projects for the church. (E.g. To repair the church’s steeple), Riley says.

He got a call this morning of a $25,000 donation from a foundation. And there has been an outpouring from citizens in the community and from the country at large, he says.

“We are in a period of loving and healing for all those who have been so terribly injured in our hearts by this tragic event.”

Mayor Riley is now addressing the media.

Riley praises the community for coming together, for helping each other. A community vigil will be held tonight, around the corner.

He says it will be a chance to talk and think about the tragic events and allow the families to be there, within the “bosom of this community” and to “feel the love, support and encouragement”.

Riley says he wanted the vigil to be held in a location close to the site of the shooting.

Details of the vigil:

College of Charleston TD Arena
66 George St., Charleston
Friday, June 19, 6 pm

Updated

My colleague Lauren Gambino with more on Roof’s charges:

During the hearing, the judge will inform Roof of the nature of the charges against him. Roof is not required to enter a plea during the bond hearing, though if he as confessed as media reports indicate, he may, based on his lawyers’ advice.

Under South Carolina law, a magistrate cannot set bond for a defendant who has been charged with a capital offense, or an offense that could carry a life sentence. In such cases, bond must be set by a Circuit Court Judge. However, it’s more likely the presiding magistrate judge will deny Roof bail, given the nature of his charges.

Roof’s case qualifies for the death penalty.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley will give a press conference in a few minutes, where he is expected to announce details of a prayer vigil held tonight at the TD Arena at 6pm.

Mother Emanuel AME church
Sisters Margaret Kerry (left) and Mary Thecla of the Order of the Daughters of St Paul pray outside the historic Emanuel AME church on Friday. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Nikki Haley walks past church in Charleston Shooting
Escorted by staff and security, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley walks past the historic church, now covered in police tape. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Chief Magistrate James Gosnell will preside over Roof’s bond hearing, according to Live5 News police reporter Herve Jacobs.

Judge JC Nicholson Jr will preside over the case, according to this order obtained by Jacobs:

According to the South Carolina courts website, Judge JC “Buddy” Nicholson. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1942, Nicholson attended college in South Carolina, getting his law degree from the University of South Carolina. Nicholson is a retired Lt Colonel who served as a US air force pilot for five years from 1965-1970 and then in the National Guard until 1989.

He has been a judge since 1999, and has been Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit since 2001.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Solicitor of the ninth judicial circuit confirmed to the Guardian that Roof has been charged with nine counts of homicide and the weapons charge.

Charges announced against Dylann Roof

Some details are emerging about the case: According to media reports, Dylann Roof has been charged with 9 counts of murder and possession of a firearm during commission of a violent crime (per Charleston PD).

The prosecutor in the case is Scarlett A Wilson, a solicitor with the 9th circuit court. Roof will be reportedly be represented by Chief Public Defender Ashley Pennington.

Updated

New questions were emerging on Friday about how Roof acquired the firearm that he allegedly used in the attack at the historic church.

On Thursday, the day after the attack, Carson Cowles – who identified himself as Roof’s uncle – told Reuters that Roof’s father had recently given him a .45-caliber handgun as a present for his 21st birthday last April.

But law enforcement officials familiar with the details of the investigation have told CNN that Roof purchased the gun himself in April:

What is known, is that Roof has a recent criminal history.

The Lexington county district attorney’s office confirmed that Roof had been charged with possession of a controlled substance in March but the circumstances surrounding that arrest remain unclear. He was also arrested in April for misdemeanour trespassing in Lexington county.

The city of North Charleston has announced that flags will fly at half-staff for nine days, in honor of the nine victims of the church shooting:

Roof is scheduled to appear in court today at 2pm, at the Charleston County Centralized Bond Court in North Charleston. He is expected to be charged with nine counts of murder, one for each of his African American victims.

My colleague Lauren Gambino confirmed with a court clerk that Roof will appear via video link from his jail cell.

This is what will happen during the hearing, via the court’s website:

First, the defendant is advised of the nature of the charges and is also advised of the rights afforded to him by the law. Second, a bond is set by the magistrate. If a defendant is charged with a capital offense, or one which might be punishable by life imprisonment, however, the magistrate, by law, cannot set the bond. It must be set by a Circuit Court Judge. Also, the magistrate might deny bond in certain cases involving violent crimes.

Roof is currently being held at the Al Cannon detention center in North Charleston having been flown back to the scene of Wednesday night’s carnage at the Emanuel AME church, writes Ed Pilkington:

Authorities said that Roof was being kept in isolation away from other people at the jail. He was also being kept on suicide watch for his own protection, they said.

Dylann Roof reportedly confesses to authorities

The suspect in the shooting has confessed to carrying out the attack, according to media reports, my colleague Ed Pilkington reports from Charleston:

CNN is reporting that it has been told by two law enforcement officials that Dylann Roof has told authorities that he was the shooter. NBC reported the same. The Guardian cannot confirm this.

According to the CNN account, the 21-year-old resident of Columbia, South Carolina, said that his motive had been that he wanted to start a race war.

Summary

Hello, and welcome to our liveblog covering the aftermath of the Charleston church shooting.

For Twitter updates, follow my colleagues Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington), Paul Lewis (@PaulLewis) and Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland), who are on the ground in Charleston. Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) is in Columbia.

Here’s are the day’s updates so far:

  • The suspect in the mass shooting of nine churchgoers as they were at Bible study in one of America’s oldest black congregations, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, has reportedly confessed to authorities. Media outlets have reported that he wanted to “start a race war” with the attack on Mother Emanuel AME church
  • Roof is due to make his first court appearance in North Charleston today
  • South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has voiced her support for the death penalty to be used in the case against Roof
  • A portrait of Dylann Roof as an apparently committed racist is emerging
  • Interactive: what happened in the South Carolina church shooting?
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