June 17, 2015: A white supremacist opens fire during a Bible study at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in American history.
To make matters worse, that record stood for only 3 years.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Mother Emanuel, was founded in 1817. Though not the oldest continuously-operating black church in America -- that would be First Bryan Baptist Church, founded in 1788 in Savannah, Georgia -- it is the oldest AME church in America. In 2015, its pastor was Clementa C. Pinckney, who was also a member of the State Senate.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old native of the State capital of Columbia, espoused racial hatred in both a website manifesto which he published before the shooting, and a journal which he wrote from jail afterward. On his website, Roof posted photos of emblems which are associated with white supremacy, including a photo of the Confederate battle flag.
Pinckney had held rallies after the shooting of Walter Scott by a white police officer two months earlier, in nearby North Charleston. As State Senator, Pinckney pushed for legislation requiring police to wear body cameras.
During the hour preceding the attack, 13 people, including the shooter, participated in the Bible study. According to the accounts of people who talked to survivors, when Roof walked into the historic African-American church, he immediately asked for Pinckney, and sat down next to him, initially listening to others during the study. He disagreed with some of the discussion of Scripture.
After other participants began praying, he stood up, and aimed a gun he pulled from a fanny pack at 87-year-old Susie Jackson. Jackson's nephew, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, tried to talk him down and asked him why he was attacking churchgoers. The shooter said, "I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."
In the aftermath, Jamelle Bouie wrote in Slate, "Make any list of anti-black terrorism in the United States, and you'll also have a list of attacks justified by the specter of black rape." He cited the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the Rosewood Massacre in Florida in 1923, and the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 as examples.
When Roof said he intended to shoot them all, Sanders dove in front of Jackson and was shot first. Roof fired at the other victims, shouting racial epithets. He reportedly said, "Y'all want something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about." Roof reloaded his gun five times. Sanders' mother and his five-year-old niece, who also attended the study, survived the shooting by pretending to be dead on the floor. In total, 9 people were killed, and 1 other was injured.
The day after the shooting, President Barack Obama visited Charleston, and said, "Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun... We as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."
Nothing was done about gun control, of course. But on July 9, the South Carolina legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from display outside the State House, and Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill. The flag was taken down the next day.
Roof was found to have targeted members of this church because of its history and status. On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. On January 10, 2017, he was sentenced to death. He was separately charged with nine counts of murder in State court. He pleaded guilty to all nine state charges in order to avoid receiving a second death sentence, and as a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
As of June 17, 2022, he remains in United States Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed there in 2001. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving bomber of the 2013 Boston Marathon, is also there.
UPDATE: Robert Bowers, who broke Roof's record with 11 shooting deaths at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, joined him on Death Row at Terre Haute in 2023.
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June 17, 2015 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The NBA Championship had been won the night before, when the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games. The Stanley Cup had been won the night before that, when the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games.
These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Miami Marlins, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Michael Pineda was the winning pitcher. Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI.
* The New York Mets lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. How many pitchers does it take to pitch a 6-hit shutout? This time: Drew Hutchison (4 hits over 5 2/3rds innings, winning pitcher), Steve Delabar (1 1/3rd hitless), Liam Hendriks (1 over 2/3rds), Aaron Loup (1 batter, 1 out), and Ryan Tepera (1 over 1).
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Washington Nationals, 5-0 at Nationals Park in Washington. How many pitchers does it take to pitch a 2-hit shutout? This time, 5, as the Rays, as they frequently do, went with an "opener game: Steve Geltz for 2 innings, Matt Andriese for 4 (he allowed both hits), Kevin Jepsen for 1, Brandon Gomes left the game with an injury while warming up, and Ronald Belisario for 2.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians, 17-0 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Tsuyoshi Wada pitched 7 innings of 4-hit shutout ball, and Yoervis Medina finished the 4-hit shutout. Addison Russell, Anthony Rizzo, Chris Denorfia and Kris Bryant hit home runs.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-4 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Todd Frazier hit a grand slam to win the game in the bottom of the 13th inning.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Target Field in Minneapolis.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Houston Astros beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the San Diego Padres, 16-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-0 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Felix Hernández pitched 4 innings of 8-hit shutout ball, and the M's still needed 2 relievers to finish the shutout.
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