Obama says 'senseless murders' show nation needs to address gun culture

An acquaintance of the man accused of a shooting massacre inside a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, said Dylann Storm Roof had complained that "blacks were taking over the world."

Joey Meek, a former friend who reconnected with Roof a few weeks ago, said that while they got drunk on vodka, Roof declared that "someone needed to do something about it for the white race."

Religious leaders surround the Reverend Timothy Tyler (center, with hand to face), pastor of the Shorter Community African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Denver on Thursday during a prayer vigil for the nine victims of the Thursday shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Andy Cross / The Denver Post

Roof, 21, is accused of fatally shooting nine people during a Bible study at The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday night, ripping out a piece of South Carolina's civic heart and adding to the ever-growing list of America's racial casualties.

Police captured Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, after a motorist spotted him at a traffic light on her way to work. Roof was back in Charleston on Thursday night with a bond hearing pending, authorities said.

Charleston officials announced a prayer vigil for Friday evening. The city's mayor described the shooting at the church as an act of "pure, pure concentrated evil."

Three men and six women were killed, and more people were wounded. Among the dead was the church's pastor, 41-year-old Clementa Pinckney, who also was a Democratic state senator.

The other victims were Cynthia Hurd, 54; high-school track coach Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; barber Tywanza Sanders, 26; church worker Ethel Lance, 70; church member Susie Jackson, 87; the Reverend DePayne Middleton, 49; vicar's wife Myra Thompson, 59; and the Reverend Daniel Simmons, 74.

"The heart and soul of South Carolina was broken," a tearful state Governor Nikki Haley said.

In Washington, a clearly frustrated President Barack Obama said the "senseless murders" showed the United States will have to come to grips with its gun culture.

"At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries," Obama said.

NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said "there is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people."

Others bemoaned the loss to a church that has served as a bastion of black power for 200 years, despite efforts by white supremacists to wipe it out.

"Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained," said Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family."

Surveillance video showed the gunman entering the church on Wednesday night, and initially didn't appear threatening, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said.

"The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study," she said. Then, "he became very aggressive and violent".

AP - AFP