Shooting suspect in custody after Charleston church massacre

Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)Before he allegedly opened fire on members of a Bible study group at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, Dylann Roof sat with them. He might have prayed with them.

A Snapchat video from Wednesday night at the historic African-American church shows Roof at a table with the small group. Nothing in the footage suggests the carnage to come.

Police say Roof shot and killed nine people inside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, near the heart of Charleston's tourist district. Eight died at the scene; a ninth died at a hospital.

Authorities were shocked not only by the killings but that the violence occurred in a house of worship.

"People in prayer Wednesday evening. A ritual, a coming together, praying, worshiping God. An awful person to come in and shoot them is inexplicable," said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley.

Six women and three men were killed, including the church's politically active pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney, said she heard about what happened inside the church from a survivor, a close friend.

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.

Police got a tip from Debbie Dills, who reportedly spotted Roof on her way into work. She followed him for 35 miles,the Shelby Star reported.

"I had been praying for those people on my way to work," Dills told the newspaper about victims of the church shooting. "I was in the right place at the right time."

At 10:43 a.m., officers saw the suspect's vehicle, and stopped it at 10:44 a.m., police said. Roof was the vehicle's only occupant.

He was armed with a gun when he was arrested, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. It's not clear if it's the same firearm used in the shooting.

It's uncertain who bought the gun Roof used.

A senior law enforcement source told CNN the suspect's father had recently bought him a .45-caliber gun for his 21st birthday in April.

But Roof's grandfather says it was just "birthday money" and that the family didn't know what Roof did with that money.

Police are searching for more information about Roof, and they are trying to determine whether he had any links to hate groups.

Authorities released a mug shot of him from Lexington County on Thursday. It was taken after a trespassing arrest in April. According to an arrest warrant from a February incident, Roof had an unlabeled pill bottle with a drug believed to be suboxone, which is used to treat opiate addiction. Roof told police a friend gave him drugs. The status of the cases is unclear.

In an image tweeted by the Berkeley County, South Carolina, government, Roof is wearing a jacket with what appear to be the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that was ruled by a white minority until it became independent in 1980 and changed its name to Zimbabwe.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten identified the nine victims as follows: Cynthia Hurd, 54; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49; Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59.

Wooten told reporters that the victims all suffered gunshot wounds and died as a result of them.

Three people survived the shooting, including a woman who received a chilling message from the shooter.

"Her life was spared, and (she was) told, 'I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to spare you, so you can tell them what happened,' " Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott told CNN. She said she heard this from the victim's family members.

Federal authorities have opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting at the oldest AME church in the South, the Department of Justice said.

"The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is hate," Charleston Mayor Riley said.

It was not clear if the gunman targeted any individual.

"We don't know if anybody was targeted other than the church itself," Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said.