With heavy hearts, D.C. locals headed to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and area churches Thursday to mourn the deaths of the nine people gunned down in Charleston Wednesday night.
North Bethesda United Methodist Church held a special service to honor the victims of what prosecutors are calling racial hatred.
The church printed photos of the victims and rang a bell in honor of each person.
"It's hard. It's hurtful, it's painful," church usher Jesse Jennings said.
"Having been born in Mississippi, I thought a lot of the racism and hatred would have gone away," he said. "But it still exists."
Church pastor Jeff Jones led prayers for the victims and their communities.
"We have an experience and connections to brothers and sisters of faith, and we need to be in prayers for them," he said from the pulpit.
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Those prayers extended from North Bethesda, down to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in D.C.
"It's pretty clear that [the shooting] was motivated by racial prejudice, and Martin Luther King is a symbol of racial equality," one visitor said.
Jennings said he would continue to work for peace.
"I pray to a God that at some point, we as a nation will come together and heal, and be as one, and not have so much hatred for each other," he said.
