On the evening of June 17, 2015, 26-year-old Tywanza Kibwe Sanders attended a Wednesday night Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina with his mother, Felicia Sanders, and his 87-year-old great-aunt, Susie Jackson. A recent Allen University graduate with a degree in business administration, Sanders was a budding entrepreneur, poet, and artist.

During the meeting a young white man who had been sitting with the group for about an hour opened fire on the parishioners. Sanders reportedly tried to reason with the gunman and shielded his great-aunt from the bullets; his mother later recalled his last words to the shooter as You don’t have to do this. Both Tywanza Sanders and Susie Jackson were among the nine people killed in the massacre; Sanders was the youngest of the victims.

The gunman, identified as Dylann Storm Roof, was captured the following morning in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed and was prosecuted in federal and state courts, receiving a federal death sentence and state prison terms. If anyone knew Tywanza or was at Emanuel that night, can you share what you remember or any information that could help preserve his memory?