In Charleston church photos, grim reality
CHARLESTON – In death, Tywanza Sanders lay on his back, one arm outstretched as his hand touched the hair of Susie Jackson, his 87-year-old aunt.
His right hand rested on his chest, his white T-shirt soaked with blood. Later, a medical examiner would pull four rounds from the body of the 26-year-old. They recovered 11 from the body of the elderly woman.
Of nine people killed in the June 2015 attack at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Sanders was the youngest, Jackson the oldest.
On Thursday, the jury considering the federal capital case against their accused killer, Dylann Roof, saw photos from inside Mother Emanuel's fellowship hall and of the church members who died in that room.
It was a moment where grim descriptions and wrenching imaginings became concrete for family and friends of victims inside a federal courtroom that fell to silence, except for the creaks of benches and the opening and closing of a door as a few spectators left.
Roof, a 22-year-old self-described white supremacist, faces 33 federal counts, some based on hate crime laws, in the killings of the nine black parishioners.
The photos – most of them panoramic-style images that offer a 360-degree view and the ability to zoom in on items – came as Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams questioned Brittany Burke, then a South Carolina state crime scene investigator charged with collecting evidence.
Under questioning, she described images of the outside of the church, most of them unremarkable except for one showing splatters of blood under the archway of a side door. Emergency officials had carried the Rev. Daniel Simmons out that door in an effort to save his life. Shot four times, the 74-year-old later died.
The group had gathered in the church fellowship hall, a large room lined with padded chairs on one side and folding tables on the other, several of them round and draped with white tablecloths and atop that, a circle of bright green vinyl or fabric.
An open Bible rested on a tabletop along with study guide for the night’s Bible lesson. Nearby was a magazine pulled from a handgun, one that held four live rounds.
Throughout the room, investigators collected 74 shell casings from hollow-point bullets fired from a Glock handgun.
In the photos, a pulpit stands at the front, on one side an American flag, a Christian flag on the other. The wood-paneled walls are lined with posters announcing “Faith Hope Love,” as well as bulletin boards, one congratulating grads of 2015 in cheerful bubble letters. Tucked in one nook are a pair of striped couches, while wheelchairs fill another.
Evidence markers had been placed throughout the room by Burke and her team, nearly 120 in all, she said. Many were the small yellow folded cards marked with letters or numbers that are typical of any police investigation. But others were index cards, folded half to form tents and labeled by hand. Her team improvised after they realized they didn’t bring enough markers, Burke testified.
Larger yellow cards rested atop the eight bodies still inside the church, numbering each of the victims.
As the prosecutor and witness continued though the scene, at least three people sitting among friends and family of the victims left, drawing the attention of jurors, while others dabbed tissues to their eyes.
A day earlier, Felicia Sanders, who survived the shooting, testified that the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the 41-year-old state senator and Mother Emanuel’s leader, was shot first, as parishioners closed their eyes in prayer.
He lay apart from the group, nearer the front of the room, blood trailing from his head on the white linoleum floor. The other church members were clustered near or partially under tables, where they had fled to take cover, according to Sanders' earlier testimony.
The draped tablecloths, pocked with bullet holes, indicated that someone stood over the tables, shooting beneath them, Burke testified.