Dylann Roof identified, arrested as shooter of Charlston church
Whether Dylann Storm Roof hates blacks or Christians is yet to be determined, but the man has been arrested in North Carolina, identified as the shooter of the Charlston, South Carolina church.
Charleston’s police chief, Greg Mullen, said Roof, 21, had been caught about 200 miles away, in Shelby, N.C., a town west of Charlott, about 14 hours after the shooting.
Police confirmed that Roof, who is from the Columbia, S.C., area, is the white gunman who walked into a prayer meeting, sat down with black parishioners for nearly an hour, and then opened fire — murdering nine people.
CNN reported that witnesses say the gunman stood up and said he was there “to shoot black people,” quoting a law enforcement official.
Mullen refused to comment on whether Roof admitted to the shooting.
Roof was previously arrested on April 26 on a trespassing charge and was awaiting moderation. He was also recently arrested for possession of a controlled substance on March 3.
Roof’s Facebook profile picture shows him wearing a jacket decorated with the flags of two former white supremacist regimes, in apartheid-era South Africa and in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
