South Carolina Police
The man believed to be responsible for the senseless killing of nine people at a Wednesday night Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church has been captured, CNN reports.
Law enforcement officers caught up with the suspect Thursday morning during a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina thanks to a tip from the public.
Investigators identified the alleged shooter as 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof. He has a criminal record and in 2015 alone, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and trespassing.
Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Senator Clementa Pinckney who was killed in the shooting, recalled a conversation she recently had with a survivor of the massacre.
“He just said ‘I have to do it,’” Johnson recalls the survivor telling her. “’You rape our women and you’re taking over the country. You have to go.’”
According to The Daily Beast, at least three people survived the shooting, and the shooter told one woman that he would allow her to live so that she can tell everyone what happened.
Roof is in the custody of North Carolina police.
