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Relatives of the nine black people killed in a terror act in Charleston faced the 21-year-old white man who took their lives in Court Friday, and offered him forgiveness and messages of love.
“I forgive you. You took something very precious from me, I will never talk to her ever again, I will never be able to hold her again,” Ethel Lance told the man who killed her 70-year-old mother in a court hearing on Friday.
“But I forgive you. Have mercy on your soul. You hurt me, you hurt a lot of people, but God forgive you and I forgive you.”
Dylann Roof, who was charged for shooting six women and three men dead at a historic African-American South Carolina church on Wednesday, appeared in court via video-feed.
Family relatives faced him one by one to share their thoughts.
“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautiful people I know. Every fiber in my body hurts,” said Felicia Sanders who lost her 26-year-old son Tywanza in the shooting.
Tywanza Sanders tried to stop the gunman, telling him “you don’t have to do this.” Roof reloaded his weapon and replied: "No, you've raped our women and taken our country. I've got to do what I've got to do."
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Survivors of the #CharlestonShooting are making it clear that TyWanza Sanders put his life on the line to save others pic.twitter.com/pTkOwW9l8G
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing)
June 19, 2015
Felicia Sanders also attended the church Wednesday evening but survived the terror act together with her five-year-old granddaughter by playing dead.
“And I’ll never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son, but Tywanza was my hero. Tywanza was my hero. But as we said in bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God have mercy on you.”
The gunman reportedly exhibited no visible emotion during the proceedings.
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“Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof, everyone’s plea for your soul is proof that they lived in love and their legacies will live in love,” said Alana Simmons, the granddaughter of 74-year-old reverend Daniel Simmons.
“Hate won’t win, and I just want to thank the courts for making sure that hate doesn’t win.”
According a childhood friend of the gunman, Roof allegedly believed that “blacks were taking over the world” and that “someone needed to do something about it for the white race.”
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the attack as both a hate crime and potential act of terrorism, spokeswoman Emily Pierce said on Friday according to Reuters.
The sister of 49-year-old Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor acknowledged the hardship of her loss in the racially-motivated terror plot.
SHE HAS A NAME; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, a mother of four daughters, singer in church choir was killed at AME. pic.twitter.com/YoqNF1yiOD
— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik)
June 18, 2015
“For me, I’m a work in progress, and I acknowledge that I’m very angry, but one thing that DePayne is always joined in our family with, was that she taught us that we are the family that love built,” said Bethane Middleton-Brown.
“We have no room for hate, so we have to forgive.”
