Charleston, S.C., Mayor Joseph P. Riley said that townspeople “are telling me they just can’t stop crying. … White people, black people, the heartache is indescribable” in the wake of the Wednesday mass shooting at an historically black church.
Riley compared the pain in his community to the “feeling people had when President Kennedy was assassinated.”
“My heart is broken,” Riley said, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. “The tragedy of this is unspeakable, and it’s just heartbreaking.”
Riley said that white and black people have come together, “holding hands, singing and praying” and that the people of Charleston’s “eyes well up when we see each other.”
“Beautiful people right over there at Bible study, and an evil man with a bigoted mind taking [their] lives,” said the mayor. “Nothing has happened in this community in my life like this … the closest thing, I think, was the feeling people had when President Kennedy was assassinated. Everyone’s heart was broken.”
