S.C. church shooting: ‘They were killed because they were black’

A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting Wednesday night inside Emanuel AME Church, a historic black church in Charleston, S.C.

Nine people — three men and six women — were killed in the shootings, which Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen called a hate crime.

Thursday morning, a Charleston police spokesman Charles Francis did not mince words in an interview with CNN.

"They were killed because they were Black.": @CharlestonPD spokesman to @CNN on the #CharlestonChurchShooting #HateCrime
— Nick Valencia (@CNNValencia) June 18, 2015

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