The FBI has identified the suspect in the shooting that killed 9 [6] at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday evening.
Update:
#BREAKING [7]: Law enforcement source tells News19 Charleston church shooting suspect arrested in Shelby, NC
— News 19 WLTX (@WLTX) June 18, 2015 [8]
Earlier, police released [9] the following security camera footage showing the suspect entering the church around 8 pm on Wednesday:
The man has been identified as 21-year old Dylann Roof, of Lexington.
[10]
Manhunt, live feed:
More, from IBTimes [11]:
Roof was arrested on unspecified drug charges in Lexington County, South Carolina last March, local television outlet WIS reported. A Facebook page purportedly belonging to Roof identified him as a Columbia, South Carolina resident who attended White Knoll High School in Lexington, South Carolina.
Roof's uncle, 56-year-old Carson Cowles, said he recognized his nephew in the surveillance footage authorities released Thursday. "The more I look at him, the more I'm convinced, that's him," Cowles told Reuters.
Cowles said Roof was "quiet" and "soft-spoken," Reuters notes. Roof's father, whose name has not been released, purportedly gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his 21st birthday, though it's unclear if that was the weapon used in the shooting.
Six women and three men were killed Wednesday night when the shooting suspect opened fire at the church. The victim's names have not been released. The suspect may have disguised his appearance with a fake nose and wig, an anonymous law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times.
Chilling eyewitness testimony from USA Today [12]:
Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney, the pastor, said one of the survivors told her that the gunman reloaded five times during the ordeal.
At point, as he was reloading, members of the group tried to get him to stop, Johnson told WIS News.
"He just said 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," Johnson said.
