and a situation that suits him. >> like handcuffing yourself to a spouse trying to leave you. >> exactly. >> simon, you're a great reporter and i'm glad to see you safe and sound. great to you have here. >> thank you for having me on. >> that is "all in" for this evening. >> thanks, chris. thanks you to at home for joining us for the next hour. a few years ago an activists named angelo carosone, he launched a campaign to get the macy's department store to dissociate it self from donald trump. he had a whole list of reasons. in the petition that he drew up, he neatly sort of summed up those reasons as follows. he said "donald trump engages in especially unpleasant nasty and despicable behavior." i then gave a big long specific list about donald trump perpetuating the racially charged berther conspiracy and being publicly sexist and a hypocrite in terms of complaining about jobs being shipped overseas when his own branded merchandise is made overseas, big long list.

so angelo wanted macy's to dissociate themselves with mr. trump. nearly 700,000 people signed that petition to macy's at moveon.org. it's a activist campaign. his name is angelo carusone. now he says that at one point donald trump threatened to sue him for millions of dollars because of that campaign to get macy's to drop mr. trump. the lawsuit never happened and angelo carusone carried on his work as being an anti-donald trump activist. when donald trump announces the his presidential campaign yesterday, you might remember one of the things he did right off the top is make a very big deal about how many people were there at the trump tower in new york to see him make his presidential announcement. here's how that announcement started. >> wow! whoa! that is some group of people. thousands. so nice. thank you very much.

that's really nice. thank you. it's great to be a trump tower. it's great to be in a wonderful city, new york. and it's an honor to have everybody here. this is beyond anybody's expectations. there's been no crowd like this. and i can tell you, some of the candidates they went in, they didn't know the air conditioner didn't work. they sweated like dogs. they didn't know the room was too big because they didn't have anybody there. how are they going to be beat isis? i don't think it's going to happen. >> dog's technically don't sweat. they pant. tongue out of the mouth and everything. but still, donald trump says he can beat isis because his rooms not too big. unlike rick perry who was sweaty at his announcement, donald trump knew the air conditioning was going to be on. he knew the size of the room. he knew how to fill that room. but him filling the room, that turns out to be the story. after watching the donald trump presidential announcement yesterday morning, the anti-donald trump activist

angelo carusone, he posted a story, basically, on medium.com. donald trump hired paid actors to attend presidential launch event. talking about the crowd of people who were there at the event which donald trump as you heard called thousands. he said there's been no crowd like. this mr. carusone said something just felt off about it to me. i couldn't quite place it. was it the staging? the crowd? my initial thought was i bet donald trump is paying some of the people to be there. he says i talked myself out of that thought initially because, i mean, come on. this was supposed to be a presidential campaign event number way he would pay actors to participate. but something was off. i have to say, did it sort of seem like something was off. cnn reported a little bit of what seemed off when they noted in their story about the campaign launch yesterday that there was somebody out on the street, out on the sidewalk outside the trump tower before the campaign launch started basically carnival barking,

trying to persuade passer's buy that they should come into the hotel and be there for the trump presidential announcement. so that was weird anyway. right? that doesn't happen in a regular presidential campaign launch. cnn had initially reported that something was off about the effort to fill that room. our own "rachel maddow show" producer said that he overheard people at the event in the vip section of the press section openly speculating about whether or not the people who were filling that room might be paid actors. and granted that seemed like idle speculation. people who were there were asking each other about it and talking about it at the event. and then there carusone started cross referencing pictures from the event that were posted on social media. he said i stumbled across a photo posted on instagram. he recognized the gentleman on right as a professional actor,

the man who regularly posts photos on line from his acting gigs. the other person in the photo also appears to be a new york city actor. she does appear to be an actor, an experienced union actor. we contacted her to day. she did not want to talk to us. honestly, i have to say there is no intimation that any actors did anything wrong here. getting paid to do an acting job and showing up and acting, it's not a crime. it's not even necessarily wrong. but we were trying to figure out if somebody really did hire paid actors to give the appearance of donald trump supporters when they were not actually donald trump supporters and there were not enough donald trump supporters to fill that filled room. angelo carusone in his investigation yesterday says he heard ultimately from sources who told him that a company called "extra mile new york city" connected trump's campaign/event organizers with the paid actors. extra mile is a plan on words

here. it's a good company name. they'll got extra mile for you. they'll try really hard. but it also means specifically extras. what you hire extra mile for extras, people who you want to be just warm bodies in the background of a scene many sm where. especially when you need a lot of warm bodies where you want to hire people in bulk to show up at an appointed time an dress in an appointed way, this is the company you call. extra mile new york city would not speak to us about whether or not they as an agency hired extras, hired actors to pretend to be donald trump supporters. but angelo carusone made this incredibly inflammatory claim today. we spent all afternoon today chasing down every lead we could, everybody who we found pictures of at the scene who seems to have been an extra for hire, everybody who is known to be an actor who appeared to be a trump supporter at that event. we spent time badgering that

agency today trying to get them to tell us whether the trump cam pay, the trump event organizers might be one of their clients. we got nowhere with that. but then, bingo. 6:00 tonight, the story breaks and naturally it breaks in the hollywood reporter, who else is going to have better connections than the acting community, right? the story breaks in the hollywood reporter that, in fact, "the donald trump campaign offered actors $50 to clear for him at presidential announcement." it's an amazing piece. his presidential announcement tuesday was made bigger with the help from paid actors at $50 a pop. there was a list of background actors seeking extras to beef up attendance at trump's event. they were reaching out to extras with gotham relations and communications, a consulting group that has worked with donald trump in the past.

they're not commenting on this matter. but when you are a casting company who hires lots and lots of extras for events, right, and movies and stuff, i mean what do you when someone hires you is a firm is you send out a notification to potential extras. you send out a notification to actors that there is work available. so there is a trail. somebody who got that e-mail, that basically -- that offer of work from the extras casting company has now provided the e-mail to the hollywood reporter. so now we know how donald trump filled the room when he announced he was running for president. this is the e-mail. hi there. there is some misspelling there and bad grammar. hi there. we're working with our associates out at gotham government relations. we're working with them with a big event happening tuesday, june 16th.

this is an event in support of donald trump in an upcoming exciting announcement he'll be making. this event will be televised. we're looking to cast people for the event to carry signs and help cheer him in support of his announcement. we understand that this is not a traditional background job, meaning a traditional acting job for extras, but we believe acting comes in all forms and this is inclusive of that school of thought. this event is happening live and will be from 8:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. the rate for this event is $50 cash. we would love to book you if you are still available. get back to us with confirmation. you know what? it is possible that this is a big conspiracy. that this is a hoax, right? that all of the people at the donald trump event are legitimately donald trump supporters and he just happens to have a lot of actors among his base. right? maybe somebody cooked up that e-mail and shocked it to the hollywood reporter when really that room filled up on its own with a lot of actors and some

other people. and, you know, maybe whoever cnn saw on the sidewalk trying to bolster the paid extras with free pedestrians who maybe wanted a little air conditioning for a half hour, maybe that was a coincidence, too, when cnn reported that. but if this is what this looks like, it's interesting. i mean, donald trump's campaign is denying. his campaign manager sold the hollywood reporter, he draws record crowd at almost every event he is a featured speaker. the crowds are large, often record setting and enthusiastic. often withstanding ovations. the campaign manager does not fall from the candidate tree, right? but despite those claims, an inability to fill the room is a problem he had in the past. a couple years ago new york magazine published the very embarrassing photos of what the room looked like when he gave a speech at cpac. now in 2015, rather than face an empty room again for his presidential announcement, this

time if the hollywood reporter is right, mr. trump solved that problem the old fashioned way, open checkbook, swivel the wrist. and this is kind of amazing in its own terms. if you're an anti-donald trump activists, right, like angelo carusone and the first guy that figured this out and donald trump did have to pay actors to fill his presidential announcement. it has to be the apex of your donald trump experience, right? it is substantively important terms of the republican party and it means that he is running for prison and doesn't seem to be faking it like he has in years past. whether or not this is a celebrity pr campaign or an actual political campaign, he is running. he's declared candidate now for the republican nomination for president. pollsters are polling on him. he is likely to take a spot in the republican party, official televised debates which under the current rules will deprive

another candidate in terms of that candidate having a spot on the stage. i mean, so even if he is kind of faking it, right, even if he is paying people to pretend they are his political supporters, he's going to be there in the debates. he's taking up almost all of the oxygen in the room in terms of at tension to the republican candidates. i mean, there's jeb bush making the presidential announcement on monday. this choreographed thing to highlight minorities in particular, right? jeb bush, not just using a big section of spanish language in his speech but the wholly vent then going out of their way to pick diverse introductory speakers, carefully picking really kind words and positive imagery about immigrants, generally and about latinos, generally and about latino immigrants in particular. and that happens very carefully from the jeb bush campaign on money. basically trying to rebrand the

republican party as friendly to latino immigrants much that's monday. but then it tuesday, there is donald trump with the actors and all the media attention in the world saying that mexican immigrants, well some of them are nice but most of them are rapists. >> when mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. they're not sending you. they're not sending you. they're sending people that have it happened around nine p m this evening. the dead man is still at large. there is no word on how many people were shot and whether there were any fatalities. we are joined by bengie starlin who has been covering this throughout the night. what is the latest? >> yep.

can you hear me? >> yes. bengie, are you there? >> can you hear me? can you hear me? hello? >> hello. okay. >> hello, can you hear me? >> we are having some difficulty getting bengie on the air. we are following this unfolding situation in downtown charleston charleston, where there has been a shooting at a historic church. we still don't know if there are any fatalities. also trying to clarify whether the shooting happened inside the church or outside the church. you notice that there are people here hoping hands. a community coming together. i know that bengie has been there all night and giving us bits and pieces through his twitter feed saying that an even bigger prayer circle is starting to build now. he is hearing the words from the people there on the ground. they are saying things, if we are not stayed in church, god,

you tell us where we are safe. bengie is saying this is heartbreaking. bengie i believe we have you on the line now. what's the latest? >> that's correct. this is intense, raw theme. these are people truly grappling with god right now, demanding answers from above from the government, from local officials officials, from the community. it's a group that is a mix of black and white. it about two dozen people and growing. it wrapped up with applause. just incredibly powerful scene. some people have walked away from the church where the shooting was reported. >> i know you said that officers pushed you guys back a lot because there was a bomb threat earlier. we have this suspected gun man at large and people are on the streets. is there a threat to the community there? what is the sense that you are getting? >> people are not acting as if they are under any imminent

threat. they move people back and felt much more precautionary a special after the initial drama of people yelling there is an imminent threat. right now people are more in a wait and see situation. people have congregated three blocks away. people are now walking down the street, so whatever they were concerned about, they are at least not in forcing nearly as much as far as keeping people away. we do not have any specific updates on that threat they warned us of earlier. >> as for the people joining us now, i know we are awaiting a news conference, that the police chief as well as the mayor are being briefed. they will bring us more information. at this point, how many people do we believe have been shot and secondly, i believe there is a suspect of who they are looking for. >> we have no idea how many

people have been shot. i have not heard any confirmed report on the number. there have been varying reports going on in the media, which i cannot personally confirm. the officers did not give us a number. there was a report that police said they were looking for a twenty one-year-old white male possibly in a gray hoodie. that is the extent to what we have gotten on possible suspects suspects. about twenty, thirty minutes ago ago, he was still at large and not in custody. we have seen helicopters overhead in search of someone. again, we have few updates beyond that as far as descriptions. >> i would love if you could stay on the line. first, i want to bring in on the phone from charleston mark mooney the courier paper out there. i know the newspaper reported that the pastor was in fact inside the church. any confirmation on that?

i know that he is the state senators. >> we do have confirmation he was inside the church however, we don't have an actual list of names of fatalities. we know at least nine people were shot. there were varying reports about one person was transported to the hospital, so at least you wonder what the condition is of the other victims. >> mike, one of the oldest, most prominent african-american churches the oldest ame church in the south. do you know exactly what they were doing? was there a bible gathering? what's the word? >> i have asked around, and i understand that they have a bible study on wednesday nights. i am assuming that is what they were there gathering for this evening, but it's just bedlam.

we have had numerous reports. we had a report of a bomb threat threat. police are telling everyone just to get out. you know they have chased everyone away from the area. they are telling everyone to stay away from the downtown area. it's just a major tragedy for our city. >> it absolutely is. we just saw this huge prayer circle that started a few blocks away from the crime scene. you mentioned earlier that it was just a madhouse. so much information so much chaos going on. are think starting to settle down at this point? >> the police have done a good job of blocking off streets and getting things out of the way, because it's a very volatile situation right now. that area of the city is just completely overwhelmed with

police and emergency vehicles. you know the main thing is they are trying to get people away because they don't know where this suspect is. the mayor date confirmedid confirmed fatalities. he wouldn't say how many but he has officially confirmed that there were fatalities. >> when did he do that? >> earlier this evening, about an hour ago. >> hour ago. okay. hopefully we will get more when that news conference happens. at this point, i know it's early on, but is there any indication why this church, mother emanuel would be a target of something this heinous? >> that is just it. it's a very welcoming curt -- church. i have been there myself. it's predominantly african-american church, around one hundred fifty years old. very friendly, very welcoming so it's just hard to fathom why anyone would do something like this.

>> mike with the posting courier, the news editor there. i know you have a busy night ahead of you. we appreciate your time. we will try to check back in with you soon. >> thank you. >> bengie, you still there? on the line? okay. we will try to check in with him coming up. once again, just to recap we here are following this unfolding situation, this breaking news out of downtown charleston, south carolina, where there has been multiple people shot. the news that we just got right now confirmed through the posting courier is that there has been fatalities. we don't know that number. reports coming out that nine people have been shot. msnbc has yet to confirm that number. we are waiting for the police chief, greg molen, to takeullen, to take the podium shortly to give us a more detailed update.

meanwhile, they have pushed back reporters and the holding area because of an earlier bomb threat. we do want to dip into local coverage and go to wcvb tv in charleston. >> we all know someone who attends or is associated with emanuel ame church. it's a church where people work very hard in the community. that is why they were there tonight. >> yeah, exactly. for bible study. they are together, as church family members. they are talking and congregating to be there together. names we know, faces we know, conversations we have had with these people. to hear what has happened, it's hard to describe. hard to put your arms around eight. it's going to be a lot of information we are getting in the next couple of minutes. we will not like the information, but we will get it from mayor riley and great

mullen. we will bring that to you, carolyn. >> i was glad to see you standing alongside the people who are participating in that prayer vigil just a short time ago, and i think that's what we all needed. ironically, it was what people were doing when that gun man walked into the church. we want to continue to let you know that what police are doing is find out who the person is who walked into that church tonight and changed so many lives. again, to provide you with the description of the person, a white male early twenties wearing a gray sweatshirt blue jeans, tempo and style boots clean-shaven. if you know anything about this person, please call 911. don't hesitate. we will continue to track the very latest information and will bring it to you on-air and online as soon as it comes in. we are awaiting to hear from

city leaders as soon as they are briefed about what happened. >> we want to go back to bengie starlin in charleston. chris janson is there, and we are hearing that a large group of family members -- she could see dozens. they have gathered in a conference room area. have you heard anything about family members and possible victims coming together in the area? >> all we heard is that there were possible family members at the embassy hotel nearby, which is where chris gm thing went to report. i have not seen him personally. i do not have an update on the status of the family members. they saw some extremely distraught people earlier in the evening shortly after the shooting, being led away by police. i can't say whether they were there as witnesses or family members, but a group of people were clearly in shock, delirious at points. >> what is the latest?

we spoke with the posting courier, and they said that in fact the mayor joe riley, confirmed there are fatalities. are you getting any more word on that? >> we have not heard from the mayor personally over here. right now there is a large group of press. we have been told by police to suspect a press conference soon with the mayor, where we will get a full update along with the chief of police. however, there is no specific time. they are being briefed right now. we still have not had a specific update from anyone personally over here. >> as far as where the stirrups stands right now, are there still choppers in the air being the i in the sky? what's the situation? starting to come down? >> there have been choppers throughout. they were circling pretty much continuously and continuing pretty much throughout at very

regular intervals. at this point, we have been moved several blocks away from the scene. i no longer have the clearest view of it. there are fewer police cars them there were than there were at the 1st. a number of them took off about an hour ago. it's a little unclear how many people are on scene right now. >> the suspect they are describing is a twenty one-year-old white male wearing a gray hoodie, some timberlands, clean-shaven. i know there was a report of another individual take it away in handcuffs. what is the status of that? >> our own producer witnessed a man who fit somewhat that description being taken away in handcuffs, but we were told that no suspect is in custody. presumably, that person was not involved in the shooting or not related to it at the very least least. we have been told that there is no suspect in custody. >> you have been able to witness

such a range of emotions, going from complete chaos to a community really coming together together. tell us a little bit about that. i know there are a lot of people on the streets right now, a lot of them holding hands. >> this is a community that has endured a lot of pain. during their prayer circle people were making references to other shootings. this state has endured the aftermath of the shooting of walter scott which tore the community apart in many ways. it's a very difficult conversation about race and gun violence. during the prayer session, the pastor shouted at one point, gun violence has to stop. he said, hillary clinton jeb bush i don't care what it is. you tell me what you are going to do about this. emotions are raw. people are looking for answers wherever they can. this is definitely a place where people have one tragedy two --

too many. it's a lot to take in. >> you can hear the intensity right there. mother emanuel, this is a place from what i am starting to understand has really touched a lot of members in this community community. people are just shocked, it seems, that -- at any church it's shocking -- this was one embedded in the community and did a lot of good. what are people saying about this congress -- congregation and the people that make it up? >> i have not heard much about the church, but you can tell by the intensity, how much it meant to the community. people we saw on the scene was a pastor from a neighboring church who came out to lend his help, to go get details. this is clearly a community that is very prominently embedded in the community. people right now are just trying to come together to figure out what's going on. >> okay.

looking at the images we have here and seeing the prayer circle and the people on the streets there, there could possibly be a disconnect for people watching because what we do know is that we have this gunman who allegedly shot multiple people, and we hear reports through the local newspaper there that there are indeed fatalities. the perimeter, does it look like they have a closed off and they think this guy or gal is in one certain place? >> there is no sign whatsoever that people are in any one specific place or not. all i can say is that three blocks away, the perimeter is relatively calm. the police are not pushing anyone away. >> reporting live. we will bring you updates throughout the night. like mission main street grants. last years' grant recipients are achieving amazing things. carving a name for myself and creating local jobs. creating more programs for these little bookworms.

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with no interruptions. i've never felt so alive. get the future of phone and the phones are free. comcast business. built for business. breaking news. we have been reporting into the morning this church shooting in downtown charleston, south carolina. it happened around nine pn last night. the gun man still at large. no word on how many people were shot. we are hearing from the local newspaper there that the mayor joe riley, has confirmed there are fatalities. we want to go to bengie starlin who is in charleston and following this closely. we are getting word that clergy is gathering and getting ready to address reporters right now. >> it is not -- to be clear,

this is just local community members. i do not know their affiliation with the church or local churches, but they just gathered and have given an impromptu what you call a press conference. people just sound extremely frustrated and upset and just total confusion. they just want answers and are not sure what happened. >> are any of them talking about why this church, a distort church one of the oldest and most prominent african-american churches here in our country, would be a target of something like this? >> i haven't heard anyone speculate, except just the shock that anyone would target a church at all, let alone such a venerated to tuition in the community. this wasn't a club. this was in a bar. this was a church. earlier a pastor said, speaking

directly to god said, if we are not safe in our church god, where are we safe? >> bengie, right now we want to go ahead and dip in because we want to hear from this community member about what they think about what has happened. >> we just trying to keep calm, everybody stay calm throughout the night. i don't know if they got the shooter or not. that's why we are at the location we are at right now. >> you have seen people out here. many people have shown up, people all over the country -- >> okay, so we seem to have lost sound. it we do want to recap for you right now this is what we know. there has been a shooting at a store church in downtown charleston. multiple people have been shot. still no official confirmation on fatalities, although the local newspaper there reporting that the mayor has confirmed

that some or at least one person has died. let's go back to the news conference being held by local community members. actually -- >> they fired this person. we are trying to find out who did this. this isn't time to be divisive. this is a time for us to come together, and we hope we can stay together. we don't want this to erupt and charleston becomes something else, but we need answers. >> charlson become something else. >> something like a ferguson. >> the situation like officer scott, the tragedy of a man being gunned down by the police here this is not really a good night that charleston is being seen in. >> no, it's not. i hate it, because i love my city. walter scott, it's kind of hard to do the comparison. this was -- we don't know if it

was a lone man, organization. it was just evil. just evil. >> people are scared to talk about the real issues, which is race. we don't want to talk about these issues. they are in our community. it's just the color of their skin, and that's bad. then you have the nerve to say this is the holy city. what's the the holy city? why do we have to live like this? we have enough issues now. we don't need more. we need peace and we are asking you to stand behind that. >> please. >> we want to reiterate, no one has said this had anything to do with race. >> well -- >> but it's obvious. >> but it's obvious that it's race. >> you have a white guy into an african-american church. that is choice. he chose to go into that church and harm those people. that's choices. >> every year we have a celebration as a result.

we remember that. we remember that. now we have to repeat the same thing. they have copycats, people that do this for attention, and we are tired of it. the community that i know trying to get the understanding of what is going on and telling them they don't have the right to be angry. they are angry, and they have every right in the world to be angry. >> they are angry and tired of it, but what can the community do? >> we have tried everything. this happened in church, the best place to be. >> one of the things that we do have, is we have opened our police department. >> exactly. >> we have opened the sheriffs office all of charleston, the city of charleston, and we think that way will find the

perpetrator of this crime. we applaud the coming together, the, moderate. we don't hate the police department. >> we love police officers. we want police. war is not the answer. war is not the answer. we want peace. one of the things i have seen so far is everybody praying together. everybody praying together. we will continue to do that. the one thing that we do have, is we have god on our side. >> amen. >> we are not going to turn to the streets. everybody out here has great jobs. we have elected officials, state senators coming in to provide services. we want peace. i reiterate that, we want peace. >> we want peace. >> we want answers as to why this happened. the church is a sacred place, very sacred.

we have 1st baptist right next door. we are asking that the community stand as a whole to support these families. those families are grieving right now. it's very, very painful to everybody might not just african-americans, to everybody across the nation. this is very, very painful, and we ask that everybody support these families and stay together together. >> that is a description that went out a twenty-year-old white male wearing a gray hoodie blue pants. that description in a college area is probably the best they have, but it could be just about anybody. there is somebody out there who knows what happened, maybe. five five four-eleven eleven is the crimestoppers number. you always talk about snitching. is there something you would like to say to those who may know who this person is? >> what i like to say is none of

those people in that church had anything to do with that evil man who decided to go with it. if you come forward now we will not see you like that, nor will we see the video of the cop shooting the officer. that has not been true. the only people who have to worry about stitches are criminals. what i call it is witnesses, witnesses. i want witnesses to tell about the crime. we are tired of this in our community. that snitching stuff is out of the door. if you see a crime happening, we need to get the evil out of our community, and we are counting on you. >> the rallying cry, if you see something, say something. we have just been told that they will have a press conference right here in about five minutes minutes. >> right now we want to bring in al sharpton, host of politics nation. he joins us by the phone. thank you for joining us.

we are getting a lot of disturbing reports out of downtown charleston ear the south carolina chair of the national action network is there on the scene. what have you heard from him? >> i have heard from him that we know nine have been confirmed dead, including reverend clemente. in fact, when i was down in charleston around the killing of the young man, scott, who was killed by north charleston police, we did a prayer vigil at b.c. . i was told that the ref and was with us that day and actually prayed with us and work with our local chapter they are. certainly, 1st and foremost, our hearts are broken, and our condolences go to the family and we joining on the appeal for anyone that has any information

leading to any suspect or suspects should cooperate and that there ought to be a calm, collective, unified response to this. we do not need to be defenseless violence with anything other then some clear thinking and some very peaceful resolve on how we deal with madness like this. so i am back and forth on the phone with mr. johnson, who is there on the scene. certainly, we are going to be vigilant to assisting anyway we can to bring about just resolve of this in terms of apprehending who is responsible but at the same time not adding to the madness. but in many ways, try to have clarity from what i know and

then being told of the reverend and others, that is what they would want. i would hope that people respect and regard what is happening and the gravity of it and not just react. >> we just heard, reverend from local community numbers, you could hear just an array of emotions. there's frustration, disbelief a lot of passion, and these people said, we are downright tired of this. this is a community that is hurting. it's hurting bad. >> it is hurting bad. i mean this community just went through walter scott, watching a police man in guided there for the shooting a man in the back, but they held together. and now there is another unbelievable experience they are going through. but, again we are just hours away from what happened. we do not know who is involved the extent of the involvement,

and we do not know where this leads. therefore, the time for real leadership and the time for real citizenship is upon us, because in the middle of a scuff you need to look and be clear on what youon what you are doing so you do not worsen the situation and increase the danger of those that we care about, and that's all of the citizens. i think this is an outrage. i think this is clearly something that reaches all of us at our most passionate level, but we must at the same time try to look beyond this immediate storm and try to find out what is behind this, and who may be behind this and operate in a way that we can stop what is going on apprehend those who are guilty and then move forward.

let us not move beyond these families and those that have already lost loved ones and the lives have been lost. >> reverend, i do want to confirm something you touched on earlier. we have confirmed through nbc news that the pastor the pastor who you have prayed with, the state senator, was in fact among those killed tonight. still at this point, not clear whether or not state senator pinckney was a target. you have been down in charleston many a time. you have been within this church community. was there ever a sense that there was hostility that existed, that something like this could possibly happen and your reaction also to the confirmation that state senator clemente pinckney is among those dead. >> i have been there as you said. i was there for walter scott.

i had police protection. there is always -- >> what about it? >> there is always an inferred threat. i will say that if you can't go to bible study in a church, and if you can have refuge in a church, then we have to ask all of us, where is refuge? where can we go? we are talking about people that were in a church doing church-related activities. pastor in the church other members of the church. this is as bad as it can get, but we cannot equal the madness or the badness. we have to try to see clear through a very, very difficult situation tonight and find answers and answers we will

find. >> reverend, we know that state senator, clemente pinckney's family has been notified that he was indeed killed in tonight could be horrible shooting. >> my reaction is that i am absolutely -- 1st of all prayer and condolences. as i said, when i was told about this less than three hours ago, and when i was told this and he still with us at the walter scott vigil and prayed about things like this. now apparently he is a victim of it. it is just heart wrenching, shocking and stunning. we must try to be as resolved as we can to try to deal with this situation so that it leads toward what is fair and just and

not overreact in terms of our passion in the wrong direction. >> in your opinion, reverend what is the 1st step in doing that? >> we must apprehend those who are responsible so that we know what has exactly happened and whether or not it is a lone gun man, as some reports say. we have to find out what we are dealing with the. >> okay. >> in order to first be able to put our arms around it. >> well said reverend sharpton. if you could standby we are starting the news conference. >> tragedy in the city of charleston and we are all praying, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families as well as this entire community. at nine zero five9:05 this evening, we received a call of a shooting that had occurred at the church here on calhoun street. when officers arrived, they found a number of victims inside and we had individuals

transported to the nus see, center. we were able to determine that there were eight deceased individuals inside of the church. two individuals were transported to the hospital. one of them has died. at this point, we have nine victims in this heinous crime that has been committed. right now, we are working with all of our partners. we have members of the charleston police department charleston county police department sled, the fbi and many other -- the atf, and many other federal agencies are here. we have a unified command that is working this investigation. we have investigators that are out tracking leads that are coming in, and we will continue

to do that until we find this individual who has carried out this crime tonight and bring him to justice. we are looking for a white male, approximately 21 years old, sandy blonde hair, and he obviously is extremely dangerous dangerous. what we are asking, and if anyone in the community has information about this particular individual, that he contact law enforcement immediately. we have all the resources available to us not only locally but for the state as well as federal agencies. we have resources being flown in from washington d.c. to help us not only track leads but also work this investigation. i can say that we will put all effort -- we will put all resources, and we will put all of our energy into finding this individual who committed this crime tonight. as i said earlier, this is a tragedy that no community should

have to experience. it is senseless. it is unfathomable that somebody in today's society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives. i can assure you that we are going to do everything in our power to find this individual, lock him up, and to make sure that he does not hurt anyone else. >> any word on the victims's names at this time? >> we are not able to release any of that. the corner is now working that particular part of the investigation. i know that there were some questions earlier about why we weren't coming forward. as you can imagine, this was a very chaotic scene when we arrived. we had a lot of moving parts. we were tracking this individual with canines. we were making sure he was not in the area to commit other crimes, and as this was going on we received information

there might be a secondary explosive device on the scene. we had to make sure that not only the responders but you and other people in the community were safe. i promise you we will keep you updated and give you regular updates as quickly as we can, but please understand that the primary role right now the primary emphasis will be us catching this individual before he hurts somebody else. >> [ indiscernible ] >> we will take questions after the mayor speaks. >> this is the most unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy. in historic emmanuel amd church, the mother church of ame churches. people have prayed on wednesday evening, a ritual, coming together praying and worshiping god to have an awful person come

in, shoot them is inexplicable, obviously, the most intolerable and unbelievable act possible. as chief mullins said, our city police department, county police department, county police department, state law enforcement division, other municipalities, fbi, others are all combined in working with us to make sure that we catch this awful person and bring him to justice as soon as possible. it we just left speaking with members of the families. it was a heartbreaking scene. i have never witnessed it in my life before. and i told them that this community sends forth their love to them and that we are all in this together in this community

to help those who have lost loved ones give them love and support and encouragement as we bring this awful person to justice as soon as humanly possible. >> is the city getting reports? >> we will be offering a reward. we will have to see exactly what the amount believe but we will be announcing a reward. what i will ask as well, obviously, if you as the media received any information at all in any form or fashion, please make sure that you get that to us as soon as possible. you might be getting some information via to your resources. >> is there anybody claiming responsibility? >> we are not going to talk about how the investigation is proceeding so we will be happy

to answer questions that are nonspecific to the investigation investigation. >> are there any survivors? >> there are yes. >> how many? >> we are not going to talk about specific numbers -- >> can you speak to -- >> we are not talking about any of the investigative activity at this time. >> what is the condition of senator pinckney? >> i am not speaking to the condition of any individual. >> was this a hate time? >> i do believe this is a hate crime. >> is that why the fbi is here? [ indiscernible ] >> okay. we just want to recap. we are coming out of this news conference live from downtown charleston, where we just heard the police chief as well as mayor joe riley. we want to do take you back to mayor riley. >> we will bring that person to

justice as soon as possible. >> how does the investigation go? how does a hate crime investigation differ from a regular one? >> the methods and techniques that will be used will be the exact same thing. what occurs is as we go forward with any type of prosecution, that is where they would come into play. >> is their only one gunmen? >> as far as we know right now. >> he is still out there. >> that's correct. >> i can only answer one person. >> we have seen some prayer and anger as well. what is the message to the community right now? >> this is an opportunity for us all to unite because of a significant strategy that has occurred. what we need right now, we need everybody to come together and pray --

>> if we stand up together we can stop this violence, and that is what we want the community to accept. people might be angry and upset and that is certainly emotions we would all understand. what we need that to do is come together and help us. we need to support the families, the community, and catch this person so he doesn't hurt anybody else. >> any means you may find, give love and support to the family members of those whose lives were taken tonight. >> we have a member of the church presiding elder of the

church. >> let me take this opportunity. >> i am the precise a member of the south carolina emmanuel conference. my 1st name is norval which -- on behalf of the presiding which is the entire state of south carolina and it is only one voice that speaks for the church in south carolina, and that is bishop doris. as a presiding elder, i am here to report that bishop doris also reinforced with the mayor and has already spoken with mayor riley and support the statement of the police chief. we have more than 50-some-odd creatures at the embassy sweets hotel. we will hold a prayer vigil at 12 noon tomorrow. the reverend doctor watkins is the pastor. we want the entire community to pray for safety for our people

and that we would hope that this person who has committed this heinous crime which is a hate crime be brought to justice. we stand in solidarity but we solicit prayers for justice. thank you so much. [ inaudible question ] >> i can't answer that. ][ over lapping speakers ] >> is there still a bomb threat? >> it looks like the news conference is wrapping up. the mayor as well as the police chief no longer taking questions. we want to bring in benji who has been covering this story all night. -- >> avoid this area. that is the message we would like to send out.