Summary: Nine people died in a racially motivated shooting on Wednesday in Charleston, South Carolina. Now, details about the victims and the shooter behind the murders are beginning to circulate.
On Wednesday, 9 people were shot in a horrific attack on a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Of this group, 8 died at the scene and another died at a local hospital.
The motive behind the shooting? Race. Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African American church in the heart of the city.
According to CNN, the shooter, Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old man, spoke often about instigating a race war or reinstating segregation.
Joey Meek, Roof’s roommate, said, “I think he wanted something big like Trayvon Martin. He wanted to make something spark up the race war again.” Of course, Meek, like many others, did not take such comments seriously. Meek added, “He never targeted a specific black person. He never did any of that, so it was just pretty much a shock.”
Meek also said that Roof liked to keep a gun in his vehicle. Meek remarked, “He said he thought the black (race) in general as a race was bringing down the white race.”
John Mullins, a former classmate of Roof’s said that Roof was “kind of wild,” but was never overly aggressive. Roof would occasionally make racist comments, but it seemed that he still had some black friends. Mullins recalled, “They were just racist slurs in a sense. He would say it just as a joke…I never took it seriously, but now that he shed his other side, so maybe they should have been taken more seriously.”
Roof’s uncle, Carson Cowles, said that Roof’s mother “never raised him to be like this…The whole world is going to be looking at his family who raised this monster. I’d be the executioner myself if they would allow it.”
Roof was apprehended roughly 245 miles from Charleston in Shelby, North Carolina. He has been charged with nine counts of murder, as well as possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
Roof was returned to Charleston, where he confessed to local police and the FBI that he committed the crimes. He also confirmed that he wanted to start a race war.
The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
According to Reverend Tony Metze, the pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbia, Roof’s sister was scheduled to get married this weekend, but her wedding plans have been postponed. Metze added, “What they’ve asked and what I ask is that we continue to hold all these families in our prayers. And that the whole world, our nation, Charleston, our community understand that we love them. God loves them.”
Many have been especially disturbed by the fact that Roof spent roughly an hour at Emanuel AME Church before he began shooting. Roof attended a prayer meeting with those he would end up murdering. Roof asked to see Reverend Clementa Pinckney, and the group pointed him out, according to ABC News. Pinckney invited Roof to sit next to him. Soon after, Roof stood up and said that he was at the church “to shoot black people,” law enforcement reported. Pinckney was slain in the shooting.
In January, two young girls were charged with shooting their older brother.
The other victims were Tywanza Sanders, 26; Cynthia Hurd, 54; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; the Reverend Depayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; the Reverend Daniel Simmons Sr., 74; and Myra Thompson, 59, according to NBC.
When one victim begged Roof to stop, Roof shot him, according to a survivor.
Roof allegedly said, “No, you’ve raped our women, and you are taking over the country…I have to do what I have to do.”
Law enforcement is further investigating whether Roof was involved with any hate groups, such as white supremacists. So far, no facts have surfaced that show he was known to law enforcement for any such involvement.
In a photo that has been shared thousands of times on the Internet, Roof is wearing a jacket with the flags of apartheid-dominated South Africa and Rhodesia. Rhodesia was ruled by a white minority until 1980, when it became independent and remained itself as Zimbabwe.
Last year, Jon Stewart addressed the media and how it covers mass shootings.
In the months leading up to the attack, Roof encountered a bit of trouble.
He was arrested for drug charges in March at the Columbiana Centre mall in Columbia. Employees at two stores told security that Roof was acting strangely, and that he was asking “out of the ordinary questions,” according to the police report. Although Roof said he was not carrying anything illegal, he consented to a search, which revealed Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction. Roof said he got the Suboxone from a friend of his. Roof was banned from the mall for one year, but was against arrested for trespassing when he returned to the mall a month later.
After Roof’s 21st birthday in April, he obtained a gun. The gun was a .45-caliber handgun that was purchased from a Charleston gun store that month.
According to Roof’s grandfather, the family gave him money for his birthday, but they did not know what he purchased with it.
Source: CNN
Photo credit: Inside Edition