Unity ... People gather outside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Dylann Roof, 21, appeared via video and showed no emotion as five victims’ relatives read statements.

“I forgive you and my family forgives you,” said Anthony Thompson, a relative of Myra Thompson, 59, one of those killed in the Wednesday night attack inside the Emanuel AME Church. “But ... take this opportunity to repent. Repent and confess and give your life to Christ and change your ways. You’ll be better off than you are now.”

“May God have mercy on you,” said Felicia Sanders, the mother of 26-year-old victim Tywanza Sanders. “Every fibre in my body hurts, and I will never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son, but Tywanza was my hero.”

Remembering the victims ... Congregants depart a prayer vigil for the nine victims killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church pass by photographs of the nine shooting victims in Charleston, South Carolina outside the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. Picture: Getty Source: AFP

The sister of DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, said: “DePayne taught me that we are the family that love built. We have no will for hating ... May God bless you.”

“We have no room for hate,” another relative said. “So we have to forgive. I pray God has mercy on your soul.”

A daughter of Ethel Lance spoke through tears.

“I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you,” she said. “And have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people but God forgives you, and I forgive you.”

The magistrate judge set the bond for a weapons charge at $US1 million. However he doesn’t have the authority to set bond on the nine murder counts that Roof faces. That will be left up to a circuit judge at a later date.

Bride-to-be ... Amber Roof has cancelled her wedding set for Sunday after her brother allegedly shot dead nine people in a South Carolina church. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

Sister dobbed in brother, cancels wedding

It came as it was revealed that Amber Roof, 27, called authorities after coming to the shocking realisation that it was her brother who was on surveillance photos shown on television, the Washington Post reported.

She was due to be married this weekend but has apparently cancelled the nuptials, Mail Online reported.

Her fiance, Michael Tyo, lives just a few kilometres from where Roof, 21, was caught by police in Shelby, North Carolina, the Post said. It’s not clear if Roof was intending to visit his sister when he was picked up.

Told police ... Amber Roof with her fiance Michael Tyo. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder following the massacre at the city’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He has already confessed to the killings, US media reports.

Roof reportedly sat through a bible study class before opening fire on the attendants. The 21-year-old white man reportedly told investigators he “wanted to start a race war”.

He also admitted he “almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice to him”.

But Roof decided he needed to “go through with his mission,” sources told NBC news.

Heroic ... Tywanza Sanders on the day of his graduation from Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. Picture: Anita Brewer Dantzler via AP Source: AP

As Roof was due to appear in court via video link on Friday for a bail hearing new details emerged of the final moments of the nine black victims.

One of the victims stood between the gunman and his elderly aunt in a heroic attempt to save her life, it was reported.

Roof told Tywanza Sanders his efforts to save 87-year-old Susie Jackson were futile, saying: “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to shoot all of you.”

According to the New York Times, Mr Sanders threw himself in front of his aunt as Roof opened fire. Both he and his aunt died.

Victim ... Susie Jackson, 87, died in the church massacre. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

Demand for death penalty

Roof, who was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday after his car was spotted by a member of the public, was brought back to South Carolina after he opted not to fight extradition.

Two sources confirmed to NBC News that Roof — whose Facebook page includes a picture of him wearing the flags of defunct white supremacist regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia — has confessed.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said on Friday she believed Roof should face the death penalty if convicted. Capital punishment is legal in the southern state.

“This is an absolute hate crime,” she told NBC’s Today show.

“We will fight this and we will fight this as hard as we can.”

Alleged killer ... Dylann Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina. Picture: Chuck Burton/AP Source: AP

NRA blames victim for the massacre

Sylvia Johnson, a relative of one of the victims, told MSNBC news a survivor had told her that the gunman had made a racist rant and reloaded five times during the attack.

“He said: ‘You rape our women and you’re taking over our country and you have to go,’” she told the network.

Three men and six women were killed, and more people were wounded. Among the dead was the church’s pastor, 41-year-old Clementa Pinckney, also a Democratic state senator.

Man of God ... The Reverend Clementa Pinckney at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Picture: Grace Beahm/AP Source: AP

An official of the National Rifle Association, America’s powerful pro-gun lobby, on Friday blame the massacre on the slain pastor’s anti-gun position.

Charles Cotton, a board member with the gun advocacy group, posted a comment on a firearms forum that he moderates in which he noted that Pinckney voted against concealed-carry gun legislation.

“Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue,” Cotton wrote on texasCHLforum.com.

Pinckney last year voted against permitting the concealed carrying of handguns in eateries that serve alcohol.

Tribute ... White ribbons for the nine victims of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting are tied to the fence outside the church. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Source: AFP

The other victims were identified in reports as librarian Cynthia Hurd, 54; high school track coach Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; barber Tywanza Sanders, 26; church worker Ethel Lance, 70; church member Susie Jackson, 87; Reverend DePayne Middleton, 49; vicar’s wife Myra Thompson, 59; and Reverend Daniel Simmons, 74.

Jon Stewart turns serious on Daily Show

The killings led to an outpouring of grief with vigils held across America for the victims.

It also led to some soul-searching with Daily Show presenter Jon Stewart breaking his tradition of telling jokes during his opening monologue to deliver an emotional message about the reluctance of some to call the killings an act of terrorism.

If America had considered this Islamic terrorism, he said, “we’ll torture people.”

In Washington, a furious but clearly frustrated President Barack Obama said the “senseless murders” show the United States will have to come to grips with gun culture.

“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Obama said at the White House.

‘He was big into segregation’

Meanwhile a portrait emerged of the baby-faced killer as a drug-addicted and racist loner.

Roof was given a .45-caliber gun from his father when he turned 21 in April this year, a senior law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said.

Vigil ... Mourners light candles for the nine victims at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Source: AFP

It is not known whether he used the gun in the church massacre, but his roommate revealed he had been “planning something like that for six months”.

Dalton Tyler, who has known Roof for around seven months to a year, told ABC News America he saw the suspect last week.

“He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Mr Tyler said.

“He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”

America’s grief ... A woman cries at a prayer vigil in New York. Picture: Eric Thayer/Getty Images Source: AFP

Roof was described as a smart, quiet child who grew up in a stable, middle-class family. He was the son of a contractor and the middle child between one full sister and one half-sister, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Then something changed.

Roof’s uncle Carson Cowles noticed it and told his sister — Roof’s mother, Amelia.

Caught ... Shooting suspect Dylann Roof is escorted by police at the Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport for extradition back to Charleston. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

“I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn’t have a job, a driver’s license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time,” Mr Cowles told Reuters.

Lately, his behaviour grew increasingly erratic and he was arrested at a South Carolina Mall for harassing store workers while high on Suboxone, a powerful medication used to treat addiction to heroin and painkillers.

And in recent weeks Roof reconnected with a childhood friend, Joseph Meek Jr., whom he hadn’t seen in five years, and started railing about black people “taking over the world” and about the need for “the white race” to do something about it, Meek said.

Face of hate ... This Charleston County Sheriff booking photo obtained on June 19, 2015 shows suspect Dylann Roof. Picture: AFP Source: AFP