Gunman at large after killing nine at black South Carolina church
A gunman was still at large after killing nine people during a prayer service at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, the city's police chief said on June 18, describing the attack as a hate crime.
Officers with dogs searched the streets for the suspect, whom police described as a 21-year-old white man with sandy hair wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots.
Gunfire erupted inside Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston on June 17 night, Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.
The gunman had yet to be caught hours after the attack and was considered extremely dangerous, he said.
The shooting called to mind a 1963 bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls and galvanized the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The Charleston church is one of the largest and oldest black congregations in the South, its website says. It has its roots in the early 19th century, and the current building, completed in 1891, is considered a historically significant building, according to the US National Park Service.