Emanuel AME Gives $1.5M to Families of 9 Killed; Keeps $1.8M

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) –The Charleston church where nine African-Americans were shot in what police say were racist killings has given $1.5 million of donations to family members of the victims.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church kept about $1.8 million of donations for building maintenance, an endowment and a scholarship fund.
The money was donated to the church in the months after the shootings last June. Church leaders say only $280,000 worth of donations specified the money go to the victims’ families, and the church decided to add more than $1 million to those gifts.
Some family members are upset the church kept more than it gave the families.