Friday 19 June 2015

Americans mourn Charleston gun massacre victims

The US is mourning the victims of its latest gun massacre, after a 21-year-old white man allegedly shot dead nine people inside a historic African-American church in the US city of Charleston.
In what was described as a “hate crime,” Dylann Roof spent nearly an hour inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night before killing six women and three men, including the pastor, according to Greg Mullen, Charleston police chief.
Roof was detained during a traffic stop about three-hours drive away in North Carolina on Thursday.
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He waived extradition and was taken to a waiting police car wearing a bulletproof vest, with shackles on his feet and his hands cuffed behind his back.
Memorials were held across the US on Thursday night and Americans took to social media to debate how to label the latest mass shooting.
Some described the killing as a hate crime committed by a lone wolf, and others saying the incident should be described as “terrorism”.
The shooting is expected to bring the issue of gun control back to the political agenda as President Barack Obama’s final term winds down and the 2016 presidential race gains momentum.
On Thursday, Obama addressed the nation on the shooting.
He said he and his wife Michelle knew 41-year-old Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the pastor who was killed along with eight others on Wednesday night.

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