Several locations in South Carolina were subject to bomb threats Thursday afternoon in the wake of a shooting that killed nine people at a Charleston church Wednesday night.
Members of the media were evacuated after a threat was made at the Charleston County Building at the end of the coroner’s 3 p.m. press conference about the victims of the Emanuel Church AME shooting, according to WCBD television in Charleston. Police gave the all-clear around 3:50 p.m.
Two churches in South Carolina on Thursday also received bomb threats while they were holding or wrapping up vigils to remember victims of a fatal shooting at a historic church in Charleston on Wednesday.
Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston was evacuated shortly after a vigil. Mourners and media were ordered out of the building.
A Charleston state lawmaker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was told there was a bomb threat. The church was evacuated and police were moving the crowd away from the building around 2 p.m. Fire trucks and police vehicles appeared with their lights flashing on either side of the building and officers cleared the street in front of the church.
Around 2:15 p.m., police gave an all-clear at the church.
Also around the same time, Fox Carolina reports that a community center in downtown Greenville, S.C., was evacuated after a bomb threat was called in during prayer vigil organized by Allen Temple AME Church.
Police gave the all-clear around 2 p.m.
Both prayer vigils were being held in honor of the nine people who were shot and killed at Emanuel Church AME in Charleston on Wednesday night after a gunman opened fire during a prayer meeting. In total, three men and six women, including pastor Clementa Carlos Pinckney, died in the shooting at the historic black church. Federal officials are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
Authorities captured the alleged shooter Dylann Storm Roof, 21, in Shelby, N.C., after a 14-hour manhunt on Thursday.
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