WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says President Barack Obama will travel to Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday to memorialize the victims of a shooting at a historic black church.
Obama will deliver the eulogy at the funeral services of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of the Emanuel AME church where the shooting that killed nine people occurred.
Obama and first lady Michelle got to know the slain pastor, who also was state senator, during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Pinckney was an early Obama supporter.
Obama last week said the shootings show the need for a national reckoning on gun violence.
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