CHARLESTON, S.C. \u201d\u201d Seventy-four days separated the fatal bursts of gunfire: the eight rounds a white police officer fired at Walter L. Scott, a black man in North Charleston, and then the shots that killed nine black churchgoers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church here.<\/p>\n
And now, seven days will separate the trials of the officer, Michael T. Slager, and of Dylann S. Roof, the white supremacist accused of carrying out the church killings.<\/p>\n
Jury selection in the state trial of Mr. Slager, who was fired after the shooting, will begin on Monday; one week later, the same process is scheduled to begin in the federal case of Mr. Roof. Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty for Mr. Roof, rebuffed his offer to plead guilty.<\/p>\n
The proceedings \u201d\u201d unusual in a country where, for different reasons, few police officers or mass killers stand trial \u201d\u201d will draw renewed attention to, and more reflection within, the Charleston area, where many residents still struggle with killings that rattled the nation.<\/p>\n