Families forgive Charleston church shooting suspect

Roof, 21, has been charged with nine counts of murder and will be held in custody until his next court appearance, Oct. 23. Roof was also charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, according to the Charleston Police Department. 

Dyalnn Roof's father, Ben Roof, told Al Jazeera on Friday that he and his daughter alerted police during the manhunt for his son. 

"My daughter and I called the hotline on Thursday morning to turn my son in," Ben Roof said. He also disputed earlier reports that he gave his son a .45 caliber gun as a birthday present. 

"I did not buy my son that gun. In fact, he used his own money. I did not buy that gun," he said. 

A judge set $1 million bond for Roof’s weapons charge. He does not have the authority to set bond on the nine murder counts. That will be left up to a circuit judge at a later date.

The hearing came as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Roof should face the death penalty if convicted.

"Watch how we handle him. That'll show you how we handle hate crimes in South Carolina, because you will see that we will push for the death penalty,” she said Friday while dodging a question regarding hate crime legislation in South Carolina. “We will make sure that we do everything we're supposed to, and we will show that that is not acceptable in South Carolina."

Meanwhile, Roof’s family members released a statement on Friday through their attorney, Boyd Young.

“Words cannot express our shock, grief and disbelief as to what happened that night,” the statement reads. “We are devastated and saddened by what occurred. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those killed this week. We have all been touched by the moving words from the victims’ families offering God’s forgiveness and love in the face of such horrible suffering."

Police believe Roof, who authorities say was motivated by racial hatred against African-Americans, acted alone. An uncle of his said Roof, whose social media profile suggests a fascination with white supremacy, received a gun as a 21st birthday present in April.

Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney's, told MSNBC that a survivor of the shooting attack told her the gunman reloaded five times during the attack despite pleas for him to stop. “He just said, ‘I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country,’” Johnson said. Police have not confirmed Johnson's statement.

Cornell William Brooks, the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Friday that the shooting was "unconscionable" and a "racial hate crime and must be confronted as such."

"We say this not because we’re trying to sow division but rather because we’re trying to sow unity — a unity of purpose, a unity of commitment, a unity of resolve so we can confront the racism in our midst," he said. 

The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of advocacy groups that includes Black Lives Matter and Ferguson Action, released a statement on Friday calling the attack "an undeniable act of terrorism" that was "intended to strike fear into the hearts of black communities." 

President Barack Obama touched briefly on the case Friday while speaking at an annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, saying that "racism remains a blight that we have to combat together."

State court records for Roof show a misdemeanor drug case from March that was pending against him and a misdemeanor trespassing charge from April. Authorities had no immediate details on those cases. It is not known whether Roof had previous cases against him as a juvenile, as juvenile records are usually sealed in South Carolina. Court records list no attorney for him.

Roof displayed a Confederate flag on his car plate, according to Kimberly Konzny, the mother of one of Roof's friends. His Facebook profile picture showed him wearing a jacket with patches of the flags of white-ruled Rhodesia (which became Zimbabwe in 1980) and apartheid-era South Africa.

In Montgomery, Alabama, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Richard Cohen, said it is unclear whether Roof had any connection to any of the 19 white supremacist organizations the center has identified as operating in South Carolina.

But Cohen said that, on the basis of Roof's Facebook page, he appeared to be a “disaffected white supremacist.”  

Al Jazeera and wire services. Philip J. Victor and David Douglas contributed to this report.