If Dylann Roof's goal was to halt worship at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., it did not work. The church held service Sunday after police say Roof shot and killed nine people, including the beloved pastor, at the historically black church last week in an effort to start a race war, according to CNN.
The church was cordoned off as a crime scene after the Wednesday shooting until Charleston police released it Saturday, the report says. Roof, 21, of Lexington, S.C., reportedly admitted to police that he shot and killed the people he'd sat with for Bible study at the church.
The church's pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was one of the victims. The Rev. Norvel Goff, presiding elder of Emanuel AME, told CNN that he will give the sermon at the service, the report says.
Other churches will remember the victims as well, notes the report. At 10 a.m. Sunday, many churches plan to ring their bells, and Sunday night, a unity chain will be held on the 13,200-foot-long Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston. Organizers hope to attract enough people to hold hands and stretch from Charleston to the town of Mount Pleasant on the other side of the Cooper River, the report says.
Read more at CNN.