Carnage In Charleston South Carolina As "9 Feared Dead" After White Gunman Calmly Walks Into 150-Year Old Black Church And Opens Fire

CHARLESTON – A gunman shot to death nine church members who had gathered for Bible study and prayer Wednesday night at one of the nation’s oldest black churches.

Among the dead was beloved pastor Clementa Pinckney, a longtime state senator who spent the earlier part of the day campaigning in the city with Hillary Clinton. South Carolina Police Chief Gregory Mullen called the shooting “a hate crime” in a press conference after midnight. ‘Intense scene’ in Charleston, South Carolina after shooting

The gunman, who the police chief described as “a white male, 21 years old with sandy blond hair,” remained at large early Thursday. Mullen said the suspect is “extremely dangerous.”

The police chief said there were wounded victims in addition to the dead, but he did not say how many.

The violence erupted at Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, the oldest such congregation in the South, known as much for the role it played at significant moments of racial distress as for its grand Gothic architecture.

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said the city was offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunman, whom the police described as a clean-shaven white man about 21 years old who was wearing a gray sweatshirt, bluejeans and Timberland boots. Chief Mullen described him as “extremely dangerous.”

“To walk into a church and shoot someone, is out of pure hatred,” the mayor said as he walked away after the news conference.

Law enforcement officers from the F.B.I.; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division; and other agencies were assisting. Chief Mullen said the police were tracking the gunman with police dogs.

Around 10:45 p.m., police officers escorted a man in handcuffs who appeared to match the attacker’s description. But officials said later that they were still searching for the gunman.

In the first hours after the shooting, the police blocked reporters and passers-by from approaching the church, opposite a Marriott Courtyard hotel, because of a bomb threat. Many among the cluster of media workers were political reporters in town to cover campaign events of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeb Bush.