Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson. Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has donated $100,000 to the families of the nine victims killed in the shooting in Charleston, S.C., and to the church where the murders occurred.
Richardson sent $10,000 per family of the victims for funeral costs and another $10,000 to Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as a memorial honoring the victims.
“We don’t want to comment on the specifics of the donation, but know our hearts are one with those who grieve the loss of these individuals,” Panthers spokesman Steven Drummond said in a text to the Charlotte Observer.
Those killed in the attack Wednesday night were: senior pastor Clementa Pinckney, 41; assistant pastor Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Myra Thompson, 59; Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; and DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49.
The $100,000 donation by the Panthers founder was made in a letter sent Friday to the Mother Emanuel Hope fund. The letter was shared by Bakari Sellers, a Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, on Twitter.
“Jerry Richardson and the Carolina Panthers donated $100k to the victims families. People are so gracious. Warms my (heart),” Sellers tweeted Saturday and posted a copy of the letter.
In the letter, Richardson identified each of the victims and wrote that the money was to help “defray funeral costs and other financial needs of each.”
“Some things are just bigger than football,” Panthers defensive tackle Colin Cole tweeted Saturday. “Thank you Mr. Richardson.”
