Full Coverage: Gunman kills nine at historic black church in South Carolina

The U.S.

The white man accused of gunning down nine parishioners at a black church in Charleston wants to plead guilty to 33 federal charges, but his lawyer said in court Friday that he couldn’t advise his client to do so until prosecutors say whether they’ll seek the death penalty.

The FBI’s surprise admission Friday that a bungled background check allowed Dylann Roof to buy the .45-caliber pistol he is accused of using to kill nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church set off calls for tougher firearm screening rules and may give the White House a chance to reopen a push for gun-control legislation.

Dylann Roof faces three new attempted murder charges after a grand jury indicted him Tuesday on suspicion of carrying out the June 17 massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.

Three weeks after nine parishioners were slain at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina’s Senate overwhelmingly gave final approval Tuesday to a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds.

South Carolina senators on Monday took a landmark step toward removing the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds, approving bipartisan legislation by an overwhelming 37-3 vote, but only after a long debate about whether such symbols glorify racism or represent heritage.

After the killings of nine black church members by a white gunman in Charleston, S.C., folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey tried to make sense of the massacre by talking about the event with other musicians.

Former Florida Gov.

Blacks and whites gathered by the thousands on the streets of Charleston on Friday to pay their last respects to state Sen.

President Obama challenged the nation Friday to face up to its legacy of racial discrimination, insisting that it would betray the memory of the victims of the black church massacre here to “allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence once again.”

When Dylann Roof was arraigned in Charleston on murder charges, members of his victims’ families stated that they forgave him.

Times are changing in the hearts of Dixie. On Wednesday, Alabama Gov. Robert J.

More than a week after a white gunman fatally shot the Rev.

Two white horses on Wednesday carried Clementa Pinckney, the revered South Carolina state senator and pastor who was killed alongside eight members of his Charleston church, to the Statehouse building Wednesday, passing the Confederate flag that has sparked national debate about Civil War symbols in the South.

South Carolina lawmakers took their first steps Tuesday to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds amid a growing controversy over whether such symbols are racist or just a celebration of heritage.

A growing number of retailers are halting sales of the Confederate flag and related merchandise in reaction to its image as a symbol of racial hate, burnished by photos of the man accused of gunning down nine African Americans in a Charleston, S.C., church.

Three GOP presidential candidates who accepted donations from a white supremacist linked to the racist rampage in South Carolina say they’ll reject the money, as Republicans struggle with uncomfortable questions about race and racism in their ranks in the wake of the massacre in a black church.

John Oliver railed against the Confederate flag in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church and questioned the South’s need to fly the “bad flag” at all.

As he tugged open the plywood door to his newsstand Saturday morning, Charles Tone turned to one of his customers with a question.

Two prominent Republicans on Sunday called the Charleston shooting in which a 21-year-old white man allegedly shot and killed nine African Americans during a prayer meeting an act of domestic terrorism.

Singing, crying and clinging to one another for solace, a grieving congregation returned to “Mother Emanuel” on Sunday, determined to restore the historic church from a murder scene to a place of worship.

He uploaded snapshots of himself burning the American flag and holding a Confederate one.

During the attack at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday night, suspected gunman Dylann Roof tried to kill himself, according to the son of one of the victims.

In an evocative and emotional address, Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urged the nation to come to grips with the “deep fault line” of race in the U.S., blaming it and easy access to guns for the slayings of nine worshipers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., days ago.

The judge who raised some eyebrows when he asked for sympathy for the family of the white man charged with killing nine African Americans at a historic church in Charleston, S.C., was previously reprimanded by state officials for using a racial slur.

Emanuel AME Church, closed since a gunman killed nine parishioners on Wednesday, is planning to reopen Sunday for prayer as Charleston continues its efforts to heal.

Dylann Roof seemed to be wandering through this small suburb with a set of racist views and little else: no school, no friends, no clique with which to associate.

For 90 years, Mt.

After a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston shot and killed Walter Scott — black, unarmed, and in full view of a camera — there was outrage, and there were protests.

The arena where more than 4,000 Charleston residents came together to pray Friday night is normally a place of excitement, where the city cheers on its college basketball teams.

President Obama told American mayors on Friday that it’s not enough to show empathy for victims of gun violence but that leaders must also push for a change in public opinion that supports gun control.

In a passionate speech Friday, the president of the NAACP called the shooting deaths of nine people at a historic black South Carolina church an “act of racial terrorism” and demanded that the Confederate flag that flies at the state Capitol be removed, calling it a “tool of hate.”

In the hours after a gunman entered a Charleston church and shot nine black people to death, South Carolina Gov.

In an extraordinary emotional display of raw pain and grace, the relatives of those slain in a shooting at a historic black church confronted suspected killer Dylann Roof in court on Friday.

I noticed the flags first.

The tragic shooting in a Charleston, S.C., church has quickly become something of a Rorschach test for the crop of politicians running for president, who are facing the first major national trauma of the campaign season.

He arrived at the Calhoun Street church at 8:17 p.m., a pale, gaunt young man with a fishbowl haircut and putty-like features.

Marquita Hamilton brought her three young sons to stand in front of Emanuel AME Church, their church, and remember those they had lost.

The man accused of gunning down nine people at a South Carolina church will get no sympathy from his family, the suspect’s uncle said Thursday evening.

Addressing the shooting deaths at a black church in Charleston, S.C., President Obama condemned the politics surrounding gun control legislation and called for Americans to do something about gun violence.

The Rev.

Already in his young life, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof was a study in contradictions.

If people are upset about mass shootings and other social problems, President Obama told the crowd at a Beverly Hills fundraiser Thursday, they ought to “push society and ultimately push Congress” in the direction of change.

If it seems like mass shootings are becoming more common, researchers say there’s a good reason: They are.

Joe Riley Jr., the mayor of Charleston, S.C., aptly described the slaughter of nine African American churchgoers in his city Wednesday night as “a most unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy.”

Saying it was time to “face hard truths about race, violence, guns and division,” Hillary Rodham Clinton called for action Thursday in response to the shooting that killed nine worshipers at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.

Hoping to quell concerns over the fatal shooting of nine congregants in South Carolina, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck reassured church leaders that officers would stand with them and provide additional security.

Since its founding nearly 200 years ago, members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., have seen their church burned to the ground, met in secret when all-black churches were outlawed and stood in the face of racial discrimination.

At a town hall meeting in South Carolina this year, President Obama looked back on the most difficult moment of his presidency — the shooting deaths of 20 children and six educators in the Newtown school massacre in Connecticut — and expressed regret over his inability to enact stricter gun laws.

It was a weekly meeting at the historic black church on Charleston’s Calhoun Street.

Dylann Storm Roof, a white man who reportedly shouted racial epithets before opening fire inside an iconic black church in Charleston, S.C., and once displayed apartheid-era patches on his jacket, was being held Thursday in connection with the attack that left nine people dead and the nation again confronting race and violence.