Charleston, SC (WLTX, AP) - Polly Sheppard says Dylann Roof, the man charged in the Charleston church massacre, let her live on the night of the killings so that she could tell the story of what happened inside the church.

On Thursday, she did just that, to a jury that will decide his guilt, and ultimately, if he will live or die.

Sheppard was the final prosecution witness in Roof's federal trial. He's facing a total of 33 charges, including nine counts of murder, for the killings of nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015.

She told the jurors how she knew all the victims personally, remembering Susie Jackson as a woman "who would do anything for you" and Cynthia Hurd as a "lovely person." She called the leader of the church, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a "gentle giant."

They had all closed their eyes for prayer during their Bible study, and that's when Roof began firing, she said. At first, she thought it was an electrical issue, but then she heard one of her fellow parishioners, Felicia Sanders, start screaming.

Photos: Charleston Church Shooting Victims Susie Jackson Clementa Pinckney Myra Thompson Ethel Lance Daniel Simmons Sr. Depayne Middleton Doctor Sharonda Singleton Ccythnia Hurd Tywanza Sanders

Sheppard went under and table, and began praying out loud. She said Roof told her to shut up, and proceeded to explain that he was doing this because black people were raping our white women.

He asked if she'd been shot. That's when he asked her to be the witness to the world of what happened.

Moments later, she called 9-1-1 using the phone of one of the victims, Ethel Lance. On the recording, played in court, she can be heard telling the dispatcher, "he shot the pastor."

At the time of the call, she was unsure if Roof was still in the church. "He's coming, he's coming please," she told the person on the other end of the line. "He's got it in his hand, he's reloading."

"There's so many people dead I think," she went on to say. "Oh my God."

She checked on her fellow parishioners, looking for a pulse from Rev. Pinckney and Hurd.

She remembered hearing Sanders, the other survivor and mother of another of the victims, Tywanza Sanders, trying to calm him down while she was on the phone. In earlier testimony, his mother said he was struggling to breathe at that point.

After questioning, Sheppard left the stand, and as she walked out of the courtroom, many of the witnesses in the courtroom, which included the families of the victims, stood for her.

The prosecution then formally rested their case. After trying to convince the judge to allow witnesses to testify to Roof's mental state, the defense rested after Dylann Roof elected not to take the stand in his own defense.

The judge sent the jury home for the day, meaning closing arguments will begin Thursday.

Earlier in the morning, the court heard from Dr. Erin Presnell, the medical examiner who performed the autopsies on the victims. She showed jurors X-rays of each person killed, with black spots the size of a penny showing the bullets that remained inside of them and pictures of the bullets she removed.

She said Wednesday that every victim was shot at least five times. Many of them had several wounds to their arms. Several times, Presnell stepped down from the stand to show how someone with their arms pulled up tight against them could end up having a bullet enter and exit their bodies several times.

Other victims had shots closely clustered together. Earlier testimony from Roof's confession to the FBI and survivor Felicia Sanders said many of the victims hid under tables when the shooting started.

Presnell says it took her four days to complete the autopsies.

Some family members of the victims stayed out of the courtroom as Presnell testified. Roof stared forward at the defense table.

