Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday called the Wednesday shooting at a Charleston church “heartbreaking and deeply tragic” and confirmed that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, along with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, would investigate the attack as a hate crime.
During a press conference, Lynch said she was committed to working with local authorities to “locate and to apprehend the perpetrator of this barbaric crime.”
Nine people were killed when a white man opened fire at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. on Wednesday.
Police located and arrested white 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof on Thursday in Shelby, N.C.
“We will do everything in our power to help heal this community and make it whole again,” Lynch said.
