9 Dead at Church Shooting in Charleston, South Carolina at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Update: Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney Dead) (Update: Police Release Pic of Suspect)(Update: Suspect ID’d as Dylann Storm Roof)

CHARLESTON CHURCH MASSACRE …

There has been a shooting at the historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Last night at approximately 8 PM ET. According to accounts, the suspect is a white male in his 20′s, with a slender build, wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland-like looking boots. Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley has confirmed that nine died in the church. One of the shooting victims included the church’s pastor, 41 year old Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a Democratic member of the state Senate.

According to reports, the shooting suspect sat in the church with the Congregation for about an hour before he began shooting. The authorities are treating this case as a hate crime.

Several people were killed in a shooting at an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

The shooter is still at large.

The shooting took place Wednesday evening at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest AME church in the South.

Police haven’t said how many people have been shot. But the source who spoke to CNN said several bodies were in the church that were yet to be identified.

“It’s really bad. It’s a very bad scene,” local pastor Thomas Dixon said.

“Apparently the person just entered the church and opened fire. That part has not been fully articulated on what happened yet … they are still looking for the suspect.”

Police said the suspect in the shooting is a clean-shaven white man in his 20s, with a slender build. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and boots.

Soon afterward, news cameras showed officers taking a man matching that description into custody, but police said they were still looking for the shooter.

Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Rest in Peace

UPDATE I: 9 Dead … 3 Males and 6 Females.

Police Press Conference

UPDATE II: At a 6 a.m. ET press conference, investigators released an image of the suspect and said he had left the church in a black four-door sedan.

UPDATE III:  City of Charleston Police Department Facebook.

On June 17, 2015 at approximately 8:00PM, the pictured white male suspect entered the Emanuel AME church located at 110 Calhoun Street and began shooting church members. The suspect was seen leaving the church in the below pictured black four door sedan.

Suspect is described as a younger white male. He stands approximately 5’09” in height and has a slender build

Law Enforcement needs help to identify this individual as part of the ongoing homicide investigation. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information regarding the suspect’s identity or whereabouts is asked to call 1-800-CALL- FBI (1-800-225-5324).

Suspects Vehicle

UPDATE IV: Manhunt on for  Charleston, South Carolina Church Shooter.

Police in Charleston, South Carolina, were searching for a white gunman on Thursday who killed nine people in a historic African-American church, in an attack that police and the city’s mayor described as a hate crime.

The shooter, a 21-year-old white man with sandy blond hair, sat with churchgoers inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for about an hour on Wednesday before opening fire, Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.

UPDATE V: Charleston church shooting suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof in custody.

Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, was arrested Thursday morning about 245 miles (395 kilometers) away in Shelby, North Carolina. He waived extradition and arrived back in South Carolina late Thursday.

He was taken into custody without incident shortly before 11 a.m., Shelby police said in a statement. Authorities got a call about a possible sighting of the suspect. A local newspaper filled in some of the details.

NFL’s Benjamin Watson Facebook Post on Baltimore Riots: ‘I See a Brokenness That Only Christ Can Give Us Wisdom and Power to Mend’

Some amazing and reflective words from the NFL’s  New Orleans Saints Tight End Benjamin Watson …

On reflecting on the riots in Baltimore, Christian professional football player Benjamin Watson wrote, “I see a brokenness that only Christ can give us the wisdom and power to mend.”

Commenting on the devastating violence that took place on Monday in Baltimore, outspoken Christian professional football player Benjamin Watson explained that the pain, anger and tension that the city and its residents are experiencing can only be healed through the power of Christ.

Watson noted that Baltimore is not the first city to go through a violent uprising over police negligence, and likely won’t be the last. He further asserted that the problems Baltimore faces right now are shared by the nation as a whole.

NFL’s Benjamin Watson Talks About Baltimore Riots On Greta Van Sustern

FACEBOOK:

We have major problems as a nation. Yesterday Ferguson burned. Tonight ?#?Baltimore? burns. Tomorrow it will be another city in our homeland. Watching the coverage I’m hearing yet another version of a nauseatingly familiar narrative. Violence by police reciprocated by violence by the community, reciprocated by violence by police reciprocated by…. It seems fruitless to continue to analyze, condemn, and respond to these dreadful episodes. “Frustration, anger, tension boiling over, upset and unfortunate” are words we hear from Baltimore residents. When it comes to law enforcement, race, poverty, education, immigration we always talk about fixing “broken” systems. We resolve to legislate for education, job creation, and systemic overhaul. These are helpful and definitely needed BUT we have done all of these things ad nauseum and look at us!! Without a change of heart these attempts fail us. So what can we say? What can we do? Systems are broken because people are broken and if systems are fixed without hearts being changed the result will be a legalistic attempt that will lack long term results. Our problems are wholistic and common to the human heart. Hatred, prejudice, exploitation, pride, self righteousness, secrecy, and rebellion, manifest itself in the explosions we’ve seen over the last year, the last century, and the last millennia.

Tonight I see so much entrenched pain without remedy. Most are handling it without violence while a few are committing the unacceptable.
Tonight I see young children, asking like my daughter did earlier, “What’s happening daddy”, in desperate need of parents to walk them through these disturbing scenes.
Tonight I see “smoke,” but we must address the fire. The response that we are watching is just “smoke” from years of hopelessness. After each situation the more I am convinced that the love of God for our fellow brothers and sisters who were created in His image, is our only hope for reconciliation. But the only way we can even see him that way is if God illuminates our view and changes our thought process. I’m not talking about holding hands and singing. Love is an action that compels one to treat another with dignity and respect even if they don’t deserve it. It pushes for education and opportunities for those in poverty. It gives identity and self worth. It administers justice without abuse. It honors authority and promotes peace. It is not weak, but strong for what is right!
Tonight I see a brokenness that only Christ can give us the wisdom and power to mend.

We pray for every disaster that happens to us. Bombings, natural disasters, cancer and outbreaks. What we’ve seen in our country lately deserves that same attention. Our attempts to fix this have fallen short.
We, and most importantly, the body of Christ, must stand for justice in all areas, for all people. We must set the standard for the correct way to treat people.

Tonight I pray for the pastors, leaders, police and community of Baltimore.
Tonight I ?#?PrayForAmerica?.

18 Al-Qaeda Islamic Extremists Arrested in Italy for 2010 Vatican Terror Plot

ARRESTS MADE IN ITALY FOR 2010 SUICIDE BOMB PLOT AGAINST THE VATICAN AND POPE BENEDICT XVI …

As reported at Reuters, Italian security forces have arrested 18 radical Islamic extremists Friday who prosecutors said were behind a failed 2010 plot to attack the Vatican as well as a bombing at a Pakistan market that killed more than 100 a year earlier. Prosecutor Mauro Mura stated in Cagliari, Sardinia that wiretaps indicated the suspected terrorists, including two former bodyguards for Usama bin Laden, planned a bomb attack at the Vatican and went as far as to send a suicide bomber to Rome.

Italian police were arresting 18 people on Friday suspected of belonging to an armed group linked to al Qaeda who were plotting attacks on the Vatican as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some of the suspects, who are all Pakistanis and Afghans, were arrested in early morning raids across Italy. Police burst into the home of the group’s suspected spiritual leader, in the northern city of Bergamo, a video released by them showed.

Though the suspects were plotting attacks mainly in their native countries, phone taps suggest the Vatican was also a target, said Mauro Mura, chief prosecutor of the Sardinian city of Cagliari, where the group based its headquarters.

In the tapped conversations, the suspects discuss “a big jihad in Italy,” added Mario Carta, head of the police unit on the case. They reference the word “baba”, which could mean the pope, Carta said.

“We don’t have proof, we have strong suspicion,” that the Holy See was a possible target, he added.

Italy: Al-Qaeda cell planned suicide attack on Vatican:

Raids were carried out simultaneously in seven different Italian provinces with arrest warrants for 18 suspected Islamic extremists following a lengthy investigation in Cagliari, capital of the Italian island Sardinia.

Authorities uncovered plans for a suicide bomber plot against the Vatican in 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI was pontiff. Evidence includes a “martyr’s vow” from a would-be suicide bomber threatening to strike against the Vatican, the spiritual focal point for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Mario Carta, an official from the counter-terror police force that carried out the raids, called it “one of the most important operations ever carried out in Italy.” Police said the operation targeted an “extremely well-structured terror network” based in Sardinia since at least 2005 that was made up of Pakistani and Afghan nationals.

Nine people have been arrested, and two are still at large in Italy. Seven of the suspects are believed to be in Pakistan, Carta said.

Barack Hussein Obama Takes Jab at Christians in Easter Prayer Breakfast as Obama Casts a Stone and Condemns ‘Less-than-loving Christians’

EVEN ON THE HOLY DAY OF EASTER, THIS CLOWN HAS TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF IT AND TAKE A SHOT AT CHRISTIANS …

Barack Hussein Obama can’t find it in himself to call out radical Islam as they slaughter, behead and burn to death innocent Christians … but he has no problem at bashing Christians. But what else should we expect from a Muslim raised individual who developed his religious teaching in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Black Liberation theology church?

“On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Mr. Obama said toward the end of his speech. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”

“But that’s a topic for another day,” the president said, receiving laughter and applause.

What a sick, pathetic, little man. This is what a community agitator does and frankly America, you are to blame for being so clueless, so apathetic and so uninformed to elect this sorry excuse of a man.

Pope Francis’ Easter Message: End Violence & Oppression … Pope Called for an End to “the Present Absurd Bloodshed and all Barbarous Acts of Violence” of Radical Islam

Pope Francis Easter Message: “Oh God, who on this day through your only begotten son have conquered death and unmarked for us the path to eternity. [...] We ask peace above all for beloved Syria and Iraq. That the roar of arms cease and that peaceful relations be restored”.

During Pope Francis’ message this Easter Sunday, he called for an end to the bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and in Africa and called for the international community not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries. Francis  prayed for an end to the violence and persecution of Christians, specifically mentioning the recent slaughter of students massacred by Islamist militants at Garissa University in Kenya.

Pope Francis prayed for an end to the persecution of Christians in his Easter Sunday address, commemorating the students massacred by Islamist militants at Garissa University in Kenya.

Calling for peace in Libya, where last February Islamic State militants beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, the pope called for an end to “the present absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence”.

He prayed for peace in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamist militants have also targeted Christian churches.

“We ask for peace and freedom for the many men and women subject to old and new forms of enslavement on the part of criminal individuals and groups,” he said.

CNN

Pope Francis reminded the world of the Vatican’s status as a state and his role as a moral diplomat in his traditional speech given at the end of Easter Mass.

The Pontiff lamented the suffering of people in the conflicts currently making headlines and called for violence everywhere to end.

Foremost, he asked that bloodshed end in Iraq and Syria and that humanitarian aid get to those in need.

“May the international community not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees,” he said in his “urbi et orbi” address, Latin for “to the city (Rome) and to the world.”

Then he turned to the Holy Land, expressing the wish that the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians resume.

Francis mentioned Libya; the nuclear talks with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland; Yemen; Nigeria; South Sudan; and the shooting at the Garissa University College in Kenya.

The Full Easter Mass can be seen below

Official Vatican Text of Pope Francis’ Easter Message:

“Jesus Christ is risen! Love has triumphed over hatred, life has conquered death, light has dispelled the darkness!

Out of love for us, Jesus Christ stripped himself of his divine glory, emptied himself, took on the form of a slave and humbled himself even to death, death on a cross. For this reason God exalted him and made him Lord of the universe. Jesus is Lord! By his death and resurrection, Jesus shows everyone the way to life and happiness: this way is humility, which involves humiliation. This is the path which leads to glory. Only those who humble themselves can go towards the “things that are above”, towards God (cf. Col 3:1-4). The proud look “down from above”; the humble look “up from below”.

On Easter morning, alerted by the women, Peter and John ran to the tomb. They found it open and empty. Then they drew near and “bent down” in order to enter it. To enter into the mystery, we need to “bend down”, to abase ourselves. Only those who abase themselves understand the glorification of Jesus and are able to follow him on his way.

The world proposes that we put ourselves forward at all costs, that we compete, that we prevail. But Christians, by the grace of Christ, dead and risen, are the seeds of another humanity, in which we seek to live in service to one another, not to be arrogant, but rather respectful and ready to help.

This is not weakness, but true strength! Those who bear within them God’s power, his love and his justice, do not need to employ violence; they speak and act with the power of truth, beauty and love.

From the risen Lord we ask the grace not to succumb to the pride which fuels violence and war, but to have the humble courage of pardon and peace. We ask Jesus, the Victor over death, to lighten the sufferings of our many brothers and sisters who are persecuted for his name, and of all those who suffer injustice as a result of ongoing conflicts and violence.

We ask for peace, above all, for Syria and Iraq, that the roar of arms may cease and that peaceful relations may be restored among the various groups which make up those beloved countries. May the international community not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees.

We pray for peace for all the peoples of the Holy Land. May the culture of encounter grow between Israelis and Palestinians and the peace process be resumed, in order to end years of suffering and division.

We implore peace for Libya, that the present absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence may cease, and that all concerned for the future of the country may work to favor reconciliation and to build a fraternal society respectful of the dignity of the person. For Yemen too we express our hope for the growth of a common desire for peace, for the good of the entire people. (the rest of the message)