Charleston church shooting

Also known as: Emanuel AME Church shooting, Mother Emanuel shooting, Emanuel Nine

Active: 2015–2015
Region: Charleston, South Carolina, USA
States: NC, SC
Kind: Mass
Status: Convicted
Victims: 9

On the evening of June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old white supremacist, Dylann Roof, joined a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and then opened fire, killing nine Black members of the congregation, among them the senior pastor, state Senator Clementa Pinckney. The next morning a driver recognized his car on a highway in North Carolina and alerted police, who arrested him in Shelby. A federal jury convicted him of 33 counts, including hate crimes, and in January 2017 he became the first person sentenced to death for a federal hate crime; he also pleaded guilty to nine state murder counts and received nine life sentences. The death sentence was upheld on appeal and he is on federal death row.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41 · June 17, 2015
Senior pastor of Emanuel AME and a South Carolina state senator.
Cynthia Graham Hurd, 54 · June 17, 2015
A Charleston County librarian for 31 years, 21 of them managing the John L. Dart Library.
Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45 · June 17, 2015
A pastor at Emanuel, speech therapist and girls' track coach at Goose Creek High School.
Tywanza Sanders, 26 · June 17, 2015
A 2014 business administration graduate of Allen University.
Ethel Lance, 70 · June 17, 2015
A lifelong member who worked at the church as its custodian (sexton).
Susie Jackson, 87 · June 17, 2015
A longtime church member and Ethel Lance's cousin.
Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49 · June 17, 2015
A mother of four who sang in Emanuel's choir and worked for Southern Wesleyan University.
Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., 74 · June 17, 2015
Had pastored another Charleston-area church; he died in hospital after the attack.
Myra Thompson, 59 · June 17, 2015
A Bible study teacher at Emanuel; wife of the Rev. Anthony Thompson, vicar of Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church.

Timeline of locations

June 17, 2015
Emanuel AME Church ("Mother Emanuel") (Crime scene)
The gunman joined a Wednesday-night Bible study and then opened fire, killing nine members of the congregation. Daniel Simmons survived the initial attack but died in hospital.
June 18, 2015
Traffic-stop arrest, Shelby, North Carolina (Arrest, approximate area)
A florist driving to work in Kings Mountain recognized his car on Highway 74 and followed it while her boss alerted police; Shelby officers stopped the car near a grocery store on the highway and arrested him the morning after the shooting.
December 7, 2016
Federal courthouse, Charleston (Court / trial, approximate area)
Before Judge Richard Gergel, a jury convicted him of all 33 federal counts on December 15, 2016, and voted for death on January 10, 2017; the judge formally imposed the sentence the next day.
April 22, 2017
USP Terre Haute (federal death row), Indiana (Prison, approximate area)
He was moved to the federal death row at Terre Haute in April 2017 and remains there; no execution date has been set.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

Emanuel (2019, Brian Ivie (dir.); executive producers Stephen Curry and Viola Davis)

Read

Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness (2019, Jennifer Berry Hawes (St. Martin's Press))

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.