USC to remember Emanuel 9 before Charleston So. series opener

South Carolina will have a pregame moment of silence Friday night at Founders Park in memory of the Emanuel 9 and to honor one of the players in the other dugout.

Charleston Southern outfielder Chris Singleton’s mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was one of the nine people killed June 17 in the Mother Emanuel AME Church shootings in Charleston.

Singleton made headlines after the shootings by saying he could forgive accused killer Dylann Roof because “love is stronger than hate.”

In a federal indictment handed down last summer, Roof was charged with the hate crime slayings of nine African-Americans at Mother Emanuel AME Church. Survivors told police that Roof sat through an hour-long bible study, then opened fire, killing nine of the 12 people there.

“There are two things you can do,” Singleton told ESPN in an interview after the shootings. “You could forgive him or not forgive him. I chose to forgive him because that’s what my mom would do.”

Singleton, a sophomore, is hitting .383 for the Buccaneers and leads the team with 15 RBIs.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 4:44 PM with the headline "USC to remember Emanuel 9 before Charleston So. series opener."