The King Center posted a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, site of a horrific shooting Wednesday night that left nine people dead.
UPDATE: King Center CEO Bernice King calls for peace, change following Charleston shootings
Dylann Storm Roof, the suspect sought in the mass fatal shooting at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., was captured in Shelby, N.C., authorities announced Thursday afternoon. The shootings are being investigated as a hate crime.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
The historic African-American church traces its roots to 1816, when several churches split from Charleston's Methodist Episcopal church.
The King Center's Twitter feed is among the many expressing grief and outrage in the aftermath of the shooting. Authorities are searching for a white male suspect and are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
The shooting summoned another painful memory for the Rev. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center.
"My heart is heavy re: Charleston #AMEChurchshooting," she posted. "Remembering 41 years ago, 6/30, when my grandmother (dad's mom) was killed in Church."
Alberta Williams King was shot while at the organ of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church on June 30, 1974. Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr., who had just arrived in Atlanta from Ohio, was sitting near the front of the church when he stood up, pulled out two handguns and shot King, deacon Edward Boykin and church member Jimmie Mitchell. King and Boykin were killed.
Chenault said that he hated Christianity and that God told him to carry out the shooting. On Sept. 13 1974 he was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of carrying concealed weapons and one count of aggravated assault.
He had a stroke on Aug. 3, 1995, and died later that month at age 44.
* Information from AJC archives was used in this report.
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