People look on as mourners file into the funeral of Cynthia Hurd, 54, at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where she was killed along with eight others in a mass shooting at the church on June 27, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. Suspected shooter Dylann Roof, 21 years old, is accused of killing nine people on June 17th during a prayer meeting in the church, which is one of the nation’s oldest black churches in Charleston. (File photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina church where nine parishioners were shot and killed in what police called a racially motivated attack earlier this year is sharing about half of the money donated to it with survivors of the attack and the families of those killed.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church announced Wednesday in a press release given to local media that it will donate about $1.5 million of the $3.4 million given to it in the wake of the June 17 shooting to the victims’ organization, called Charleston’s Hope Fund. That group has raised nearly $3 million on its own.
Emanuel AME says it will use its share of the donated money for building improvements, a permanent memorial to the nine killed and five survivors and scholarships and community outreach projects.
