Local residents, visitors, and an American civil rights leader gathered in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday to mourn the victims killed by a gunman at a historic church in the city.
The 21 year-old suspect, Dylann Storm Roof, has been arrested by local police after killing nine people at the church on June 17.
Many believe that the shootings represent another direct act of terrorism in the country.
"It's really heartbreaking, you know, that people can still do this type of thing to other human beings. It hurts me. It's nothing other than an act of hate, there is no other way around it, it's terrorism. I don't wanna hear excuses anymore if somebody is mentally ill because they are doing something like this," said Brad Hutchinson, a mourner from the local community.
The shootings at the predominantly black church have also raised racial tensions. Hutchinson said he believes racism still exists in America today.
"People think because the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s are over that racism is gone, but it's not. You can look all around the country, racism is very much alive," he added.
The United States Department of Justice has announced it will conduct a hate crime investigation into the case.
Joyce Gilliard, a local African American, said, "People need to just come together as a nation and try to figure out what we can do to stop these senseless murders from happening all over the country."
"Sometimes people just have it in their heart to be hateful. It's a tragic thing that this happened here in our city, or even anywhere else. And my heart hurts because of it. You know we do have a lot of battles that we have to conquer being an African American," she added.
The American civil rights leader, Al Sharpton, also visited the church on Thursday and paid tribute to the victims.
"We have had too much killing and rather than trying to raise the tension we need to pause. The nation needs to pause and say how do we stop this hate and stop this," said Sharpton.
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