Police called the shooting at Emanuel AME Church a hate crime Thursday. The shooter remained at large overnight.
Police stand outside the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday.
David Goldman / AP
A shooter killed nine people who had gathered Wednesday night for a prayer meeting in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, officials said.
Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a news conference that the shooting happened around 9:05 p.m. at Emanuel AME Church. When officers arrived, they found eight people dead inside the church. Two others were transported to a hospital, where one of them died, Mullen said.
"This is a tragedy that no community should have to experience," Mullen said. "It is unfathomable that somebody would walk into a church where people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives."
The shooting prompted a massive police response, but the suspect — described as a white man with a small frame in his early 20s — remained at large overnight.
Mullen said he believed the shooting was a hate crime, and that the investigation will move forward under that assumption. There were additional survivors, but Mullen did not say early Thursday how many.
Mayor Joseph Ripley Jr. called the shooting "inexplicable — obviously the most intolerable and unbelievable act possible."
"The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people who are praying is out of hate," he said.
9 Killed In Shooting At Historic Black Church In Charleston
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