melvin graham perdiÓ a su hermana. >>> dios perdona pero yo quiero que el gobierno acelere su encuentroe. >>> tenemos que amar uno al otro y aceptarnos uno al otro >>> centenares llegaron hasta rendirle tributo a las vÍctimas. al padre admirado a las 6 mujeres y 3 hombres que cumploomo le lee este mensaje nunca serÁ olvidados, 9 lazos representan sus vidas, las oraciones y lÁgrimas es la manera que charlestÓn dice estar sanando sus heridas. >>> tenemos que unirnos uno al otro para para llorar para que no siga estas cosas pasando, porque es es muy triste >>> es el temor de muchos hispanos aquÍ >>> asÍ como se dio con la gente de color es para cualquier persona de este paÍs >>> la gobernadora quiere combatir los crÍmenes de odio con todas sus fuerzas un mensaje que busca traer paz a esta ciudad. donde segÚn el alcalde un hombre quiso dividirla pero la uniÓ mÁs. >>> eso es muy importante en charlestÓn, en este momento a sÓlo unas cuadras de aquÍ se estÁ llevando a cabo una vigilia en honor a las 9 vÍctimas, vamos a ver las imÁgenes, y los padres de dylan le han enviado el peed saem a pe sa

. >> reporter: for melvin graham reflection and retribution are competing emotions. >> obviously, god forgives but i want to expedite the meeting between him and god. >> reporter: according the investigators dylann roof went to the church an hour before the shootings, asked to join the bible study, then opened fire. eight would die inside the church, and a 9th died at the hospital. after an all out man hunt, he was found in shelby north carolina. an alert citizen called police after recognizing the suspect. >> the subject is now in custody. >> reporter: president obama said now is the time for healing but also called for meaningful change when it came to american's access to guns. >> at some point, we, as a country, will have to recognize that this type of mas violence doesn't happen in other countries. >> we've been here before whether it's in a movie theater, a classroom or a church, gun violence raised its ugly head again. zblrmt as -- >> reporter: as families grieve the city of charleston joins them. the suspect a 21-year-old man in court today to face charges. this is an old city

. >> reporter: melvin graham lost his sister. >> i would say god forgives, but i want to expedite the meeting between him and god. >> reporter: processing the crime scene is one thing. processing why this happened is another. and as we mentioned there is a hearing for the suspect at 2:00 p.m. today. we could face the death penalty. in the sate oftate of south carolina the death penalty is relatively common. whether or not the hate crime charges come into play, they will tell you it doesn't make a great difference. this is the outpouring of people driving up and down. many showing up and putting flowers for the nine victims in this massacre. >> thank you, dave. >> and right now a lot of people are sharing clips of last night's episode of the daily show with jounn stewart. he spoke about the anguish he feels over the shooting in south carolina and what he thinks it says about the u.s. here's a small part. >> i honestly have nothing other than just sadness. that's the thing. al qaeda, isis, they're not [ bleep ] compared to the damage that we can apparently do to ourselves on a regular b

. >> reporter: melvin graham lost his sister. >> obviously his god forgives but i want to expedite the meeting between him and god. >> reporter: processing the crime scene is one thing. processing why this happened in the so-called holy city is another. dave wagner nbc news charleston south carolina. >> and south carolina governor nikki haley spoke about the deadly church shooting on the "today" show. she called it a hate crime and says the entire state is devastated by the shooting. >> any time there's a traumatic swashgs people want something to blame, they always want something to go after. there's one person to blame here. a person filled with hate. a person that does not define south carolina and we're going to focus on that one person. >> the governor also stressed the shooting suspect dylann roof should have to face the death penalty if convicted. >>> back in our area governor chris christie spoke about the charleston church massacre during a speech at faith and freedom, conference in washington, d.c. >> the idea that anyone that any human being would walk into a church and sit

melvin. you talked to senator lindsey graham a short time ago. about that and what is happening in the community right now. >> reporter: let's start with what is happening in the community right now. there are a number of vigils that have happened over the course of the day. the most regent vigil wrapping up roughly an hur hour and a half ago. some young old, black, white. they were at a church about a block from emanual ame. at the end of the prayer and worship service they walked to emanual ame and placed flowers in front of that church. among those paying their respects, as you mentioned, south carolina senior senator lindsey graham. this is a snippet of what he had to say. >> going in to a church sitting in the church by the pastor for an hour and getting up and shooting people is something that's going to be very hard to understand how somebody could do that. i think it's going to rock us because this church has ban sanctuary. the ame church has been a historic sanctuary for the black community. i have gone to the middle east and seen hate u

. >> that was nbc's craig melvin talking to senator graham and joins me this morning. where do things go from here? >> reporter: you know jose what's startling about all of this is if you looked at the visual yesterday inside the capitol dome behind me and governor haley and tim scott and senator lindsey graham as well just about all of the republicans behind the governor up until last week they were fine with the flag flying. in fact most of them have been fine with the flag flying for their entire political careers. but last wednesday something changed an it changed in a dramatic way. a number of them telling me that nine dead churchgoers and one of their own is too much not to ignore. the governor calling on those legislators yesterday to bring it down. i'm told that the lower chamber will start acting on it today. there will be some legislation introduced at that point. the senate will then be required to act. so the question is how quickly will the senate then act? the only reason that the legislators are here right now for the most part is to handle some budget t