Five Years Later: We remember the heartbreaking loss of The Emanuel 9

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Jun 17

EEW Magazine Online // In Memoriam // Black Lives Matter

Jennifer Pinckney was hiding under a desk holding the mouth of her then-6-year-old daughter when Dylann Roof fired more than 70 shots in Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine black worshippers.

Five years later, the shooting on June 17, 2015 still sends chills up our spines, and we pray for family members, friends and the community that continues trying to heal through faith and forgiveness.

Jennifer Pinckney and daughters Malana and Eliana (Credit: Getty/AP)

As we honor the memory of the slain, let us say their names:

The Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Cynthia Graham Hurd, 54; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74; Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59.

Pinckney’s husband, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was one of the nine killed by Roof, who sat through 45 minutes of Bible study at the church before firing shots. Pinckney and her daughter, Malana, were in the reverend’s office when they heard gun shots in another room.

Last year, in an Associated Press interview, Pinckney, who watched the documentary “Emanuel,” executive-produced by Oscar winner Viola Davis and NBA star Steph Curry, reacted to the film.

“It brings it all back for me,” she said. “It’s emotional. I can’t help but to relive what happened.”

Roof was convicted of federal hate-crime and obstruction-of-religion charges and sentenced to death.

In this June 19, 2015, file photo, the men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. lead a crowd of people in prayer outside the Emanuel AME Church, after a memorial service for the nine people killed by Dylann Roof in Charleston, S.C. (Stephen B. Morton/AP)

Before the attack, the then-21-year-old had told a friend that he intended to kill people at the historic black church to start a race war. Emanuel is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the U.S. South.

"They welcomed him in," Rev. Sharon Risher, daughter of one of the victims, Ethel Lance, told NPR. "He sat there and listened to this whole Bible study. And when they were in a circle holding hands in prayer is where he took out his Glock 45 and commenced to shooting and killing them like they were animals."

At a bond hearing days after the attack, some of the victims’ family members offered Roof forgiveness and said they were praying for him, even as they described the pain of their losses.

“We have to get to that point where we start respecting, and showing more love and more care, and coming together, becoming one unity,” said Pinckney.

Risher, who also reacted to the recent police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, said, "I'm just weary. Even though I know everybody is not a racist and there are people in this country that do want racial harmony, it's just so much to get through. You wonder. How long? Just how long?"