In Charleston, Raw Emotion at Hearing for Suspect in Church Shooting

[Crabtownboy]

Christian love, Christian forgiveness for all to see.

In an extraordinary display of grief and forgiveness, relatives of people killed in a shooting at a storied black church here addressed the suspect in court on Friday, one after another offering an emotional mix of blessings and pleas for peace.

“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms,” Felicia Sanders told Dylann Roof, the suspect in a massacre that officials said was racially motivated. She was in the room when the gunman fatally shot nine people, including her son, Tywanza, and Ms. Sanders survived by pretending to be dead.

“You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I know,” she said. “Every fiber in my body hurts, and I’ll never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son, but Tywanza was my hero.”

But like some of the others, she added, “May God have mercy on you.”

The daughter of another victim, Ethel Lance, her voice choked with sobs, said: “I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you,” the woman said. “And have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people, but God forgive you, and I forgive you.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/charleston-shooting-dylann-storm-roof.html?_r=0