FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 17, 2017, Chris Singleton poses with his sister, Camryn, left, and his brother, Caleb, right, before the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Chicago Cubs have drafted Chris Singleton, whose mother was among those killed two years ago during the shooting inside a South Carolina church. Singleton was selected Wednesday by the defending World Series champions with the final pick of the 19th round, No. 585 overall. He is a right-handed-hitting center fielder at Charleston Southern University. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)
FILE – In this Monday, Aug. 17, 2017, Chris Singleton poses with his sister, Camryn, left, and his brother, Caleb, right, before the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Chicago Cubs have drafted Chris Singleton, whose mother was among those killed two years ago during the shooting inside a South Carolina church. Singleton was selected Wednesday by the defending World Series champions with the final pick of the 19th round, No. 585 overall. He is a right-handed-hitting center fielder at Charleston Southern University. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File) FILE – In this Monday, Aug. 17, 2017, Chris Singleton poses with his sister, Camryn, left, and his brother, Caleb, right, before the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Chicago Cubs have drafted Chris Singleton, whose mother was among those killed two years ago during the shooting inside a South Carolina church. Singleton was selected Wednesday by the defending World Series champions with the final pick of the 19th round, No. 585 overall. He is a right-handed-hitting center fielder at Charleston Southern University. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)
NEW YORK | The Chicago Cubs have drafted Chris Singleton, whose mother was among those killed two years ago during the shooting inside a South Carolina church.
Singleton was selected Wednesday by the defending World Series champions with the final pick of the 19th round, No. 585 overall. He is a right-handed-hitting center fielder at Charleston Southern University.
The outfielder’s mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was one of nine people killed by Dylann Roof on June 17, 2015, during a Wednesday night Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, one of the South’s first African-American churches.
Coleman-Singleton, who was 45, was a track coach at Goose Creek High School.
In a news release detailing the amateur draft, Major League Baseball says Chris Singleton was honored by the New York Yankees during the team’s annual HOPE Week in 2015, “following his courageous response to the tragic shooting inside a Charleston, South Carolina church that claimed the life of his mother.”
Courtney Oakes is sports Editor and photographer with Sentinel Colorado. A Denver East High School alum. He came to the Sentinel in 2001 and since then has received a number of professional awards from...
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