Suspect captured in fatal Charleston church shooting

A 21-year-old man who officials believe fatally shot nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina was arrested on Thursday.

The Department of Justice launched a hate crime investigation into the incident in which a 21-year-old man named Dylann Roof allegedly opened fire during a prayer meeting inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston on Wednesday night, killing nine people, including the church's pastor.

Roof, 21, was reportedly apprehended in Shelby, North Carolina, almost 250 miles away from Charleston, during a traffic stop, according to the Charleston police chief.

An uncle of Roof's named Carson Cowles said he recognized his nephew from surveillance imagery. He described the young man as withdrawn and troubled, and even worried he was "too introverted."

Cowles also recalled that Roof received a gun for his recent birthday in April.

"I actually talked to him on the phone briefly for just a few moments and he was saying well I'm outside target practicing with my new gun," Cowles told Reuters of the birthday present.





Police Chief Greg Mullen said that the suspect attended the prayer meeting and stayed for nearly an hour before he opened fire Wednesday night.

Police said the victims included six females and three males, but did not give any additional information while waiting to notify next of kin. Mullen also reported that three survived the shooting.

Family members told WCIV-TV that a five-year-old was among those who survived after playing dead.

Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of church shooting victim Pastor Clementa Pinckney told NBC News that she spoke with one of the shooting survivors, who allegedly told her the gunman reloaded five times.

Johnson also claimed that one of the people inside the church tried to convince the gunman to stop shooting, and that he responded, "'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country, and you have to go."

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