The gunman who killed nine people during a shooting spree at a US church should get the death penalty, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley says.
"We will absolutely want him to have the death penalty," she told US TV network NBC.
Dylann Storm Roof had complained that "blacks were taking over the world," an acquaintance of the 21-year-old said.
Joey Meek, a former friend who reconnected with Roof a few weeks ago, said that while they got drunk on vodka, Roof declared that "someone needed to do something about it for the white race."
Roof is accused of Wednesday night's shooting during a Bible study at The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The victims included a state senator who was also the church's minister.
President Barack Obama has called the tragedy yet another example of damage caused by guns in America.
Police captured him in North Carolina after a motorist spotted him at a traffic light on her way to work. Roof was back in Charleston on Thursday night with a bond hearing pending, authorities said.
Charleston officials announced a prayer vigil for Friday evening. The city's mayor described the shooting at the church as an act of "pure, pure concentrated evil."
Surveillance video showed the gunman entering the church, and he initially didn't appear threatening, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said.
"The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study," she said. Then, "he became very aggressive and violent."
Meek called the FBI after recognising Roof in the video, down to the stained sweatshirt he wore while playing videogames in Meek's home the morning of the attack.
"I knew it was him," Meek said after being interviewed by investigators.
During their reunion a few weeks ago, Roof said he had bought a .45-calibre Glock pistol and that he had "a plan," Meek said. Meek said it scared him enough that he took the gun out of Roof's car and hid it in his house until the next day.
On his Facebook page, Roof displayed the flags of defeated white-ruled regimes, posing with a Confederate flags plate on his car and wearing a jacket with stitched-on flag patches from apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, which is now black-led Zimbabwe.
It's not clear whether Roof had any connection to the 16 white supremacist organisations operating in South Carolina.
His police record includes misdemeanour drug and trespassing charges.
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