NINE KILLED IN 'HATE CRIME' AT CHURCH!

A white gunman killed nine people and injured at least one other at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in an incident that both the mayor and chief of police said was a “hate crime”.

Police were still searching early this morning in Charleston for the suspect, who they described as a 21-year-old male, and asked local residents for help. The church’s pastor, Clementa Pinckney, a South Carolina state senator, was among those killed, Reverend Al Sharpton said in a post on his Twitter feed.

Mayor Joseph Riley Jr described the scene as a “most unspeakable, heartbreaking tragedy".

“This is one hateful person that did these dastardly deeds,” Riley told reporters in Charleston.

Police Chief Greg Mullen declined to identify victims or survivors while speaking to reporters at a news conference. “This was a hate crime,” Mullen said.

Mullen said cops received a call about the shooting yesterday at 9.05pm, and officers found eight people dead when they arrived on the scene. 

Two people were transported to the Medical University of South Carolina, where one died. Mullen described the shooter as having sandy-blond hair and being “extremely dangerous”. A post on the police department’s Twitter feed described the suspect as having a slender build and wearing a gray sweatshirt and Timberland boots.

“This is a tragedy that no community should have to experience,” he said. “It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives. And I can assure you that we’re going to do everything in our power to find this individual, lock him up, to make sure that he does not hurt anyone else.”

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, asked for prayers for the families affected by the shooting. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush canceled a campaign event in the city scheduled for Thursday morning.

“While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” Haley said in a statement.