Friends, family remember the victims of the Emanuel AME shooting

The nine victims of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, are being remembered by their friends and family as being "kind-hearted" people devoted to their faith.

The six women and three men were identified Thursday by Charleston County coroner Rae Wooten as Rev. Clementa Pinckney; Tywanza Sanders; Cynthia Hurd; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton; Rev. Depayne Middleton Doctor; Susie Jackson; Ethel Lance; Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr.; and Myra Thompson. They ranged in age from 26 to 87, and died from gunshot wounds after being shot during their weekly Bible study at their historically black church.

Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was first elected to the South Carolina Senate at the age of 23. "He was a sweet person," community member Lisa Doctor told NBC News. "He was just a kind-hearted man." Sanders, 26, graduated from Allen University last year with a degree in business administration. His friend, Nai Chaganty, said he helped her "hold onto her faith" after she was in a car accident, and first met him when he saw her drop her wallet and ran after her to return it. "He would give you the clothes off his back," she said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Hurd, 54, worked for three decades with the Charleston County Public Library. On Thursday, all 16 branches were closed in her honor, and the St. Andrews Library will be renamed the Cynthia Hurd Regional Library. "We think that's a fitting honor for her, for someone who spent 31 years in our community, and it's the very least we can do for someone who was a true public servant," Charleston County Council member Elliott Summey said. Doctor, 49, was a church singer and former community development block grant employee, who "was doing very human, kindly things in our government for others," Summey said. Coleman-Singleton, 49, was a speech therapist and girls' track and field coach at a high school in suburban Charlotte. Jackson, 87, was a longtime church member, and Ethel Lance, 70, was a sexton at Emanuel AME. Simmons, 74, was a member of the church's ministerial staff, and Thompson, 59, was the wife of the vicar of Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church.