The shooter in Charleston, South Carolina who killed nine people Wednesday night spent almost an hour inside the church with them before opening fire, the police chief revealed in a press conference Thursday morning.
Police Chief Greg Mullen said the white suspect was in a meeting for about an hour inside the Emanuel AME Church, a historically black church, before he began shooting. The time stamps on new images of the suspect show him entering the church at 8:17 pm; the shooting was reported at 9:05 pm.
The images also show his possible getaway car, which Mullen said has a “distinctive front license plate.”
Six women and three men were killed. Eight were dead when police arrived on the scene, and the ninth was taken to the hospital where he or she later died. Mullen revealed Thursday morning that there were three survivors who police have been communicating with. None of the identities of any of the victims or survivors have been made public besides the church’s pastor, State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was among those killed. A black cloth was placed over his chair in the Senate in Charleston.
“This tragedy we are describing right now is indescribable,” Mullen said in the press conference. “No one in this community will ever forget this night.”
Mullen describes the suspect as a white male, about 5 feet 9 in. tall and between 21 and 25 years old. The FBI is being called in to help with the manhunt, and police are currently treating the shooting as a hate crime.
“This is a very dangerous individual,” Mullen said in a 6am press conference Thursday.
Rev John Paul Brown, a Charleston minister, urged the community not to retaliate for the attack. “At this point there is so much healing that is needed, he told WBTV. “As a faith community we would kill everything that we stand for [if we resorted to violence].”
This attack comes two months after the fatal shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston, which ignited racial tensions in the state and around the country.