At churches in Charleston on Sunday (June 21), bells tolled for the dead days after a gunman, identified by authorities as 21-year-old Dylann Roof, shot dead nine black church members in a racially-motivated attack.
At St. Michael's Church, members gathered inside to chime the bells of the large 17th century white stone church that towers over City Hall .
Outside, members rang individual bells, filling the air with sound.
The bells also rang out from the Charleston 's Second Presbyterian Church in solidarity with the victims.
St. Michael's is only about a mile away from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church , where nine African-Americans victims were gunned down last week.
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Roof was arrested on Thursday (June 18) and charged with nine counts of murder. Authorities say he spent an hour in an evening Bible study group at the church, nicknamed "Mother Emanuel" for its key role in U.S. black history, before opening fire.
Federal investigators were examining a racist manifesto on a website that appeared to have been written by Roof. The site featured white supremacist writings and photos, apparently of Roof.
St. Michael's and another predominantly white downtown Anglican church , St. Philip's Church , on Sunday organized a bus to take parishioners to Emanuel AME at noon to gather in support of its members.
Hundreds of people packed the sweltering Emanuel AME Church for the emotional first service since the murders.
Armed police searched bags at the door of the church and officers stood at intervals inside the church along the side of the nave and in the gallery.
Outside the church, a large crowd gathered to express solidarity with those inside.
Emanuel AME is home to the oldest African-American congregation in the southern United States .
