Witness tells how she was spared to tell story of massacre

Homeland Security patrol the streets outside the Federal Courthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, during Dylann Roof's trial. Photos / AP

A 72-year-old retired nurse has told US jurors how she cowered under a table while Dylann Roof killed nine of her fellow worshippers at a historic black church but spared her so she could tell the story of what he had done.

Polly Sheppard was the last person to testify for the prosecution at Roof's federal hate crimes trial in Charleston, South Carolina.

After she detailed the bloodshed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015, Roof told the judge he did not want to testify and the defence rested its case without calling any witnesses.

Lawyers are set to give their closing arguments tomorrow.

There is little doubt about Roof's guilt. The 22-year-old, a self-described white supremacist, confessed to the crime in a videotaped interview and has offered to plead guilty if prosecutors halt their quest for a death sentence.

The government refused, however, and the penalty phase of Roof's trial will get underway in January if he is convicted of federal hate crimes resulting in death, obstruction of religion and firearms violations.

Sheppard's eyewitness account added to the chilling testimony and evidence jurors will consider.

While she was on the stand, jurors heard the tape of her pleading with emergency dispatchers for help after the shootings.

"Please come," she said, describing how a white gunman had shot the church's pastor and others attending a Bible study.

Sheppard, a member of the church's trustee board, was composed while testifying how Roof opened fire after parishioners had closed their eyes in prayer.

She said she thought the sound was something electrical until she heard Felicia Sanders screaming: "He's shooting everybody, Miss Polly!"

Dylann Roof.

Sheppard dived under a table and prayed aloud as the shots rang out, she testified.

Roof told her to shut up.

"Have I shot you yet?" Sheppard said he asked her.

When she responded no, Sheppard said Roof told her, "I'm not going to. I'm going to leave you here to tell the story".

The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Sanders, 59, and a young girl at the church meeting also survived.

Sanders was the first prosecution witness. Jurors earlier heard a grim accounting of the multiple gunshot wounds suffered by the dead.

Susie Jackson, the oldest victim at 87, was hit at least 10 times, a forensic pathologist testified. The Reverend Clementa Pinckney, pastor at the church and a state legislator, died from five gunshots.

- Reuters, AAP