国际英语新闻:Relative of Church Shooting Victim Tells Suspect: 'I Forgive You'

Raw emotion filled a Charleston, South Carolina, courtroom Friday as relatives of the nine victims of the shooting massacre at Emanuel AME Church addressed the man charged with their deaths.

“You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again.” 70-year-old Ethel Lance’s daughter told an impassive Dylann Roof. Her voice dipped and soared with pain. “But God forgive you. I forgive you.” Ethel Lance had been church sexton at Emanuel.

Roof watched remotely via a video hookup in a boxlike room where he was flanked by two heavily armed law enforcement officers, occasionally dropping his eyes.

Charged with nine counts of murder, Roof will remain in prison, having accepted a “no bond arrangement” for the murder counts. Bail of $1 million was set for an additional weapons charge.

“We welcomed you Wednesday night into our Bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautifulest people that I know. Every fiber in my body hurts,” said Felicia Sanders, the mother of the youngest of the shooting victims, Tywanza Sanders, 26.

Sanders was a recent college graduate who appears on Facebook in a sideways baseball cap next to a banner that reads, “Your dreams are calling you.”

The shooting victims — six women and three men — included an 87-year-old woman. Three other people were wounded.

A relative of one of the victims said that Roof, who is white, told the study group, whose members were all black, that "you've raped our women and you're taking over the country. I have to do what I have to do."

Roof, 21, was arrested in neighboring North Carolina on Thursday after he'd fled by car. His next court appearance will be in October.

Differences on punishment

Federal authorities announced Friday that they were investigating the killings as a possible act of domestic terrorism, as well as a hate crime, "from all angles," a Department of Justice spokesman said.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told NBC's "Today" show on Friday that she would prefer to see Roof tried on state charges and believed state prosecutors should pursue a death sentence.

However, Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley, speaking at a news conference later Friday, said, "I'm personally not a proponent of the death penalty."

"I think it collectively over time adds to violence," Riley said. "I think people who commit serious crimes should lose their freedom forever, but that's the law in South Carolina, no doubt it will be sought."

Riley also announced that a fund had been set up for the families of those killed in the attack.