The pastor, and state senator, killed in Wednesday's mass shootings at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, a historic black church in Charleston, S.C., was related to former Georgia Bulldog safety Sanders Commings.
Commings, now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, expressed his grief on Twitter, where he posted a picture with the text "RIP to my cousin #ClementaPinckney."
Sanders, who attended the final day of Chiefs' mandatory minicamp Thursday, was not made available to the media after practice. The team did confirm that Commings and Pastor Clementa Pinckney were blood relative.
Pinckney, a married father of two, was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at age 23. He was a graduate of Allen University in Columbia. He was 41.
Police said they have arrested Dylann Roof, 21, who is accused of killing nine people at the church, during a traffic stop Thursday about 3-1/2 hours northeast of Atlanta.
A fifth-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, Comming played at Georgia from 2008 to 2012.
