When news of a shooting at a church in Charleston, S.C. that took nine lives broke, it hit home here in Selma for pastor Leodis Strong of Brown Chapel AME Church.

The shooting happened Wednesday night at Emanuel AME Church during a prayer meeting.

“The grief is just so heavy it is heart breaking,” Strong said Wednesday. “It almost crushes the spirit to see something like this happen, and it drives you to your knees to prayer to call on the name of the one who is able to touch our hearts and to lead us through this. It is an unimaginable kind of experience.”

The shooter, 21-year-old Dylan Roof, took part in the meeting for nearly an hour before opening fire. He killed six women and three men, including Sen. Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor.

“I have known persons who were members there, as well as at least two of the pastors who have served there in the past,” Strong said. “That may be why the grief I feel is so hard and so heavy. That sense of connectedness to that church is an indescribable grief. It is heart breaking.”

Roof was on the run from authorities until Thursday morning, when he was caught in North Carolina.

Emanuel AME dates back to 1816 and has strong ties to AME churches around the world.

“This church, this pastor, this congregation, it says so much about who we are and where we’ve come from,” Strong said.

“This church, even after worship in black congregations was outlawed in South Carolina, continued underground to worship God, to praise God and to serve God. This church has been sustained, has given hope, has nurtured the faith in persons in our denomination and beyond really through some of the most faith-killing circumstances in situations.”

One of the church’s original members, Denmark Vesey tried to organize a slave revolt in 1822.

Strong, who feels a deep connection to the Charleston church, said it was hard to find words to express his sympathy for the congregation.

“I don’t know if there are words that convey to a person who is going through this kind of grief. I don’t know if words are adequate to express in a way that can be heard right now,” Strong said.

“I think the response will have to be action based and not verbalized and to be respectful of what pain and grief that has been just so shockingly and suddenly thrown upon these families.”

Strong said the doors of Brown Chapel will be open for the majority of the day Thursday for people who want to pray for Emanuel AME.

“There are prayer vigils scheduled throughout African Methodism today. This church will be open and available as a part of our relationship with our AME brothers and sisters across the world, and we will be sharing in that spirit of grief and that sense of brotherhood and sisterhood,” Strong said. “Our hearts go out to those individuals and their families who have lost their lives.”

Strong said he anticipates Bishop James Davis, who is in charge of the Ninth Episcopal District to lead them in a united response to Charleston.

“My feeling is that he will be leading us in a united response to the congregation and the seventh Episcopal District in which Emanuel is a part,” Strong said.

According to a spokesman for the Justice Department, the FBI is opening a hate crime investigation due to the nature of the shooting at the historic black church.