A South Carolina black church founded by former slaves in 1865 was attacked by a white gunman Wednesday night and multiple churchgoers have reportedly been killed.
According to the Charleston Police Department, the shooting occurred around 9 p.m. at the site of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Marion Square neighborhood of the historic city’s downtown.
There was no official word on victims or deaths, but CNN reported Wednesday night, citing “an official close to the investigation” that “there are multiple fatalities inside the church.”
“The source said there are several bodies in the church that have not yet been identified,” the news network reported.
Separately, the Charleston Post and Courier reported that eight people had been shot, although the newspaper did not specify deaths.
“Suspect in shooting on Calhoun St is a w/m approx 21 slender small build wearing a grey sweat shirt blue jeans timberland boots clean shaven,” the Charleston PD said on its Twitter feed.
The gunman remained at large near midnight and police were trying to clear the neighborhood, though the Charleston PD denied it had asked residents to leave their home.
“It’s really bad. It’s a very bad scene,” Thomas Dixon, a volunteer pastor at nearby Summerville Christian Fellowship, told CNN. “Apparently the person just entered the church and opened fire.”
“I ask the nation to keep Charleston in our prayers,” said state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, a Charleston Democrat who told the Post and Courier he had been in contact with the county sheriff.
The Emanuel AME pastor is the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who is also a Democratic member of the state Senate. The 41-year-old pastor was reportedly in the church for services at the time of the shooting.
According to its Website, Emanuel is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the South, being officially organized under its current name in 1865 though its congregants had met illegally during the antebellum and Civil War periods when black churches were outlawed in South Carolina. It is affectionately called “Mother Emanuel” in black-church circles in the South.
The first Emanuel AME Church to be built on the current Calhoun Street site was completed in 1872 and the current edifice dates from 1891.
In Southern churches of all denominations, both black and white, services on Wednesday evenings — which occur halfway between one Sunday morning and the next — are typically the busiest of the weekdays and can sometimes rival the Sunday attendance.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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