Haley demands death penalty for gunman in church shootout
20 Jun 2015 6:40 AM IST
Indian-American governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley on Friday said the 21-year-old gunman who killed nine persons inside a historic black church in a hate crime should get the death penalty. “We will absolutely want him to have the death penalty,” Haley told NBC News.
Nine people, including pastor-cum-state senator Clementa Pinckney, were shot dead during an attack inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night. The police arrested a 21-year-old white male on the charges of killing people.
Haley also has asked people of South Carolina to stay calm and maintain peace, a day after the deadly shootout in Charleston.
“We’ve got some pain we have to go through. Parents are having to explain to their kids how they can go to church and feel safe, and that’s not something we ever thought we’d deal with,” Haley said.
“There is a lot of prayer in this state. (The families of the victims) need us and the people of South Carolina need us to come together and be strong for what has happened,” she said as she battled her emotions during the news conference.
“We allow ourselves to grieve, we allow ourselves to pray, we allow ourselves to question why this happens and then we allow ourselves to heal,” she said.
“We can now tell our children that that person is in custody and we can now not only lift up our law-enforcement communities but thank them and give them the credit they deserve and the courage that they deserve,” Haley said.
Haley’s remarks were praised by Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. A presidential aspirant, Jindal also lashed out at US President Barack Obama for his statements on the church shooting, which he alleged tended to divide the country on sectarian lines.
“I think for today what the commander-in-chief should have done - he could he emulated what Nikki Haley did ? what a great governor of her state, coming and speaking for the people of South Carolina saying our hearts are broken and having that candid moment on TV,” Jindal told the MSNBC in an interview.
“You can see the emotion, that’s beginning the healing process. The President could have asked the country - he could have said, instead of talking about politics we’re not democrats, republicans, independents, blacks whites; we’re Americans. We all need to worship together,” Jindal said.
Obama had said: “I say that recognising the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. And at some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.”
Florist hailed a hero after tailing suspect’s car
A North Carolina florist is being hailed a hero for alerting police when she spotted the suspected gunman’s car and then tailed him for nearly 50 km until authorities arrested him, hours after the massacre of nine black worshippers in one of the worst hate crimes in US history.
51-year-old Debbie Dills was driving to work yesterday through Shelby, North Carolina about four hours’ drive from Charleston ? when she spotted a black Hyundai with a South Carolina plate and a confederate flag.
“I don’t know what drew my attention to the car,” she told CNN. “There was just something inside of me that said it just didn’t look right to me,” she said.
When she pulled up alongside, she saw the driver’s blond bowl haircut and immediately called her boss, Todd Frady.
Police had earlier launched a massive manhunt and identified the gunman as 21-year-old <g data-gr-id="79">Dylann</g> Storm Roof.
<g data-gr-id="84">Roof</g> is suspected of killing nine people, including pastor and South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney, during a prayer meeting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on Wednesday night.
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