CHARLESTON, S.C. — The 21-year-old man who was arrested in the killing of nine people in one of the South’s most storied black churches was charged Friday with nine counts of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, the police said, offenses that could lead to the death penalty.
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The Charleston Police Department announced the charges just hours before the suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, a white man who returned to Charleston under heavy guard on Thursday night after his arrest in North Carolina, was expected to go before a judge on Friday afternoon for a bond hearing, where he will hear the charges against him.
South Carolina’s governor, Nikki R. Haley, on Friday called for Mr. Roof to face the death penalty.
“This is a state that is hurt by the fact that nine people innocently were killed,” Ms. Haley said, adding that the state “absolutely will want him to have the death penalty.”
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