...The 21-year-old Roof appeared before a judge Friday through a remote video feed, showing no emotion in a striped prison jumpsuit. He is charged with nine counts of murder.
If his plan was to start a race war, Roof was met by an amazing level of forgiveness.
"You hurt a lot of people but God forgives you, and I forgive you," a daughter of Ethel Lance said.
Felecia Sanders -- the mother who saw her son die Wednesday night -- recalled how she and the others welcomed Roof into the Bible study.
"We enjoyed you," she told the court. "But may God have mercy on you."
(Felecia Sanders -- mother of victim Tywanza Sanders and a survivor of the church shooting -- said that "every fiber in my body hurts, and I will never be the same."
"As we said in the Bible study, we enjoyed you," she said of Roof. "But may God have mercy on you." )
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| Tywanza Sanders |
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Inside the Bible study massacre: A mom 'laid in her son's blood')
(So those African American Christians are able to forgive Roof, the racial killer of their loving son, mother, aunt ...etc. because of the blood of Jesus, God the Son. ( I think))
...The worshipers couldn't have known Roof's plan. He was there to start a race war. He was there with the intent to kill them. Because they were black.
What words congregants may have been exchanged with their visitor during the Bible study remains unknown. But it is clear he was surrounded by love.
And that's why what happened next is so haunting. So disturbing. That he could spend time to meet his victims -- and still carry through with his plan to commit mass murder. According to CNN-affiliate WBRC, Roof had second thoughts but decided to go through with the massacre because no one else was going to do it.
And that's why what happened next is so haunting. So disturbing. That he could spend time to meet his victims -- and still carry through with his plan to commit mass murder. According to CNN-affiliate WBRC, Roof had second thoughts but decided to go through with the massacre because no one else was going to do it.
"After joining them for some period of time, he obviously became very aggressive and violent," Johnson said.
He pulled out his handgun -- .45-caliber shell casings were later found at the scene -- that had been hidden behind a fanny pack around his waist, and he opened fire. It is believed he shot Pinckney first.
Tywanza Sanders leapt up, concerned about the pastor. He pleaded with Roof. Said he didn't have to do this. Tried to talk him down.
Roof disagreed. "No, you've raped our women and you are taking over the country. I have to do what I have to do," he said, according to Johnson, who was quoting a survivor.
He then pointed his gun at the oldest person in the room, Susie Jackson. Sanders tried to shield his great aunt from the volley of bullets. Both were killed. "He was trying to protect his aunt. That's him 100%," family friend A.J. Harley said.
Sanders' mother, Felecia, pretended to be dead.
"She watched her son fall," Johnson said. "She laid there in his blood."
Survivors have told friends Roof reloaded his gun at least five times. He told one woman that he would spare her so she could tell the world what happened and that he planned to kill himself.
When the shooting was done, nine were dead -- one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Each victim was shot multiple times.
