Charleston Suspect Dylann Storm Roof Has Been Captured
Multiple news outlets have reported that Dylann Storm Roof, suspected of killing nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church on Wednesday night, has been captured.
The State, Charleston's newspaper, and WLTX TV have both reported that Roof was captured by authorities in Shelby, N.C.
Roof is wanted for allegedly killing six women and three men at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, including the church's pastor who was also a state senator. Three people survived.
Witnesses said Roof sat with the attendees at a prayer meeting for more than an hour before he turned his gun on them. His uncle, Carson Cowles, said Roof received a .45 caliber pistol from his father as a birthday gift earlier this year.
The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. One woman who told NBC News she was a cousin of the pastor, Sen. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, said Roof reloaded five times during the shooting.
She said he told a survivor, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."
In his Facebook photo (shown above), Roof is wearing a jacket with the flags of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.