“9-1-1, what’s the address of the emergency?”
“People shot down here! Please send somebody right away! Emanuel Church… Emanuel AME… 110 Calhoun Street… and there’s people shot. Yeah, all the men in the church. Please come right away!”
“Okay, my partner’s going to be getting some help on the way while I get a little bit more information from you, okay?”
Dylann Roof—after he was spotted by a driver… I was nervous… Lexington, South Carolina, to get his tag number. Michelle and I know several members of Emanuel AME Church. We knew their pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who, along with eight others gathered in prayer and fellowship, was murdered last night.
On June 17, 2015, twelve churchgoers gathered at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, for a Bible study, as they did every Wednesday. However, on the day in question, a face not too familiar with the group would turn up to participate. Although all members of the congregation were African-American, a white man turned up wanting to join in. It was slightly out of the ordinary, but thinking nothing of it, they assumed he attended the local college. So, all twelve accepted him as one of their own, taking him in to spread the word of the Lord.
What they suddenly didn’t know, though, was that the man in question was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and was there for one objective: to kill with a warped ideology. After delving into the depths of the internet, Dylann Roof used the trust of the church to his advantage, and at the moment of prayer, opened fire. All nine were murdered in cold blood.
Come with me as we take a deep dive into one of the darkest days in recent American history: the Charleston church shooting. We will take a look at how, although not connected to any specific organizations, one can become filled with so much hate at the click of a button and the stroke of a keyboard.
In a distant past, one that was the polar opposite of the horrific events that took place in 2015, a child was born on April 3, 1994. Dylann Roof was born to parents Amelia Cowles and Franklin Bennett Roof. The pair, although once married, had divorced but then reconciled, and three years later Dylann was born. The reconciliation, however, didn’t last long, and by the time 1999 swung around, Franklin had found himself remarried to Paige Mann.
To think that Dylann grew up in a home full of racism and hate would make sense, but that, believe it or not, was never the case. Throughout his early life, both in and out of school, race never really played a part in it. In fact, Dylann attended schools where different races were present, and he got along with everyone. He was quiet, polite, and treated everyone the same.
There isn’t too much in-depth reporting about his early life, other than that he compulsively used hand sanitizer. He emptied bottles into his hands so much, in fact, that it became something of a running joke in class that Dylann couldn’t do anything—not even go to learn—until he had disinfected and scrubbed his hands clean.
Anecdotes from his elementary school principal and a close childhood friend of African-American heritage paint a picture of what his time was like in school.
“I remember him because he was quiet,” the principal recalled. “I always remember thinking, ‘This is a nice, handsome-looking boy. Handsome, cute, but quiet.’ And he was never in my office for trouble. He was very quiet, and he wasn’t part of the ‘in crowd,’ which was more the kids of college-educated families. He wasn’t a part of that; he was with the working-class kids.”
His childhood friend recalled:
“I recalled a class assignment that required students to go home and ask about their heritage. Dylann had asked me about my background and learned that my father was Black, but that didn’t change his behavior towards me. In fact, we became closer because our mothers had grown up together, so they wanted us to get to know each other outside of school. We had sleepovers, went out skateboarding, and played video games in our spare time.
He wasn’t the most popular kid, but he wasn’t upset about that. From what I remember, he wasn’t doing that good in school either. It wasn’t just books; in everything, he was just dull. He wasn’t really street-smart, let’s say. If we were at the park and we had to run away, he’d be kind of slow on getting what we needed to do. As we grew older, our interests diverged. He wasn’t the sort of kid you took along with you because he just wasn’t with it.”
Dylann had lived life going back and forth, staying with his mother and father at different locations in South Carolina. But in 2005, that all changed when his father decided to relocate to the Florida Keys. He would now be in full-time custody of Franklin.
After spending nearly three years out in Florida, Franklin and Paige’s marriage broke down, so they both separately moved back to South Carolina. Paige claimed that Franklin had been abusive to her, and that’s what led to the divorce. Franklin, on the other hand, stated that wasn’t the case; he boiled the divorce down to Paige being unfaithful after a private investigator hired by himself had spotted her with another man. Whatever the circumstance, neighbors don’t remember too much about the family. We just remembered that he was scrawny for his age.
After scouring the internet for information about Dylann’s time in Florida, it’s hard to find anything because the family kept to themselves, and no school friends came forward because there were none; he never enrolled at school. So, after missing out on years of being in a school environment, Dylann was ready for the ninth grade when he returned. He enrolled at the White Knoll High School in Lexington County, South Carolina.
This time around, he struggled even more. A mix of missing out on school in the years prior and what Caleb referred to as making him “transient” took a toll. His overall attendance for ninth grade was poor. He opted to spend his time smoking and drinking with others in the local area. It is not surprising, then, that he failed ninth grade and had to repeat it the following year at White Knoll.
The only other reports from around this time state that in March of 2010, he was transferred to Dreher High School in Richland County, South Carolina, but had apparently stopped attending classes altogether, continuing his drug-taking and spending his days playing video games. Dylann enrolled in an online school the following year in 2011, but once again dropped out, so he went ahead and got a GED. That way, he had some form of qualification moving forward.
It isn’t exactly clear what Dylann got up to from this point onwards, other than a repetitive lifestyle of drinking, smoking, and playing video games, all funded by the landscaping job his father forced him to get. Still, though, there were no signs of Dylann being full of hatred. However, that was all due to change in 2012.
“The story that’s ignited fierce passions across the nation, as allegations of racism and a miscarriage of justice tear apart a small Florida town. Three weeks ago, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot down by a white neighborhood watchman who claimed self-defense and has not, at this point, been arrested. And it’s caused a public outcry that spread like wildfire. ABC’s Matt Gutman brings us the latest now from Sanford, Florida.”
On the night of February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was returning home from a convenience store in Sanford, Florida, when he was noticed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. The gated community in which both Trayvon and George lived had recently fallen victim to burglaries, so residents were on high alert.
The Sanford Police Department recorded the following version of the call:
“Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there’s a real suspicious guy. It’s Retreat View Circle. Um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining, he’s just walking around, looking about.”
“Okay, and this guy—is he white, Black, or Hispanic?”
“He looks Black.”
“Did you see what he was wearing?”
“Yeah, a dark hoodie, like a gray hoodie, and either jeans or sweatpants and white tennis shoes. He’s here now, he was just staring… he was just walking around looking at all the houses, and now he’s just staring at me.”
“Okay, so that’s 111 Retreat View Circle?”
“That’s the clubhouse. He’s near the clubhouse right now. Yeah, now he’s coming towards me. Okay, he’s got his hand in his waistband. Yeah, he’s a Black male… Something’s wrong with him. Yeah, he’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands, I don’t know what his deal is.”
“Okay, just let me know… Yeah, we got them on the way. Just let me know if this guy does anything else. Okay?”
“These… they always get away. When you come to the clubhouse, you come straight in and make a left. Actually, you would go past the clubhouse on the left-hand side… No, you go straight through the entrance and then you make a left. Uh, yeah, you just go straight in, don’t turn and make a left. He’s running! He’s running!”
“Which way is he running?”
“Down towards the other entrance of the neighborhood.”
“Okay, which entrance is that that he’s heading towards?”
“The back entrance.”
“All right, sir, what is your name?”
“George… He ran.”
“All right, George, what’s your last name? … And George, what’s the phone number you’re calling from? … All right, George, we have them on the way. Do you want to meet with the officer when they get out there?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, where are you going to meet with them at?”
“If they come in through the gate, tell them to go straight past the clubhouse… and make a left, and then they go past the mailboxes. It’s just my truck.”
“Okay, what address did you park in front of?”
“I don’t know, it’s a cut-through, so I don’t know the address.”
“Okay, do you live in the area?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“What’s your apartment number?”
“It’s a home. It’s 1950… Oh, crap. I don’t want to get it all out, I don’t know where this kid is.”
“Okay, do you want to just meet with them right near the mailboxes then?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“All right, George, I’ll let them know to meet you there. I’m sorry, could you have them call me and I’ll tell them where I’m at?”
“Okay, yeah, that’s no problem. Do they have my number? You got it?”
“Yeah, I got it. No problem, I’ll let them know to call you when they’re in the area.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
After that call had ended, a violent encounter took place between the pair, which resulted in George shooting Trayvon. He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. 17-year-old Trayvon was unarmed. George was taken in for questioning and pleaded his case of self-defense. He was let go five hours later. The police claimed there was no evidence to refute George’s claim of having acted in self-defense under Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute. On April 11, 2012, though, he was charged with second-degree murder, and in July 2013, a not guilty verdict was given.
After the death of Trayvon Martin, the news spread like wildfire throughout the nation. Dylann Roof caught wind of the case and decided that he’d research what all the talk was about. He read through various articles breaking down the known details at that point but couldn’t see what the vast majority of the public was seeing. To him, George Zimmerman was in the right; he did nothing wrong.
After seeing a country-wide outcry that another African-American had fallen victim to what many believed was a targeted attack because of Trayvon’s race, Dylann felt the complete opposite. He felt like the case didn’t need as much attention as it was getting. As he was researching the Trayvon Martin case, he later told FBI investigators, for reasons unknown, he decided to search up the phrase “black on white crime.”
From that moment forward, he developed a warped, misinformed, and hateful mindset. Down the rabbit hole he went. For the next three years, Dylann would delve deeper into a white supremacist ideology, one that, in his own words, he didn’t express with family or friends because they wouldn’t agree with his viewpoints—a dark secret, then, that he could only share with like-minded individuals.
After using the Council of Conservative Citizens website to view black-on-white crime statistics (which academics say are actually false and don’t give full context), Dylann found himself on much more extreme sites, such as The Daily Stormer. As of August 2017, The Daily Stormer website was removed from the internet for good, so it’s hard to pinpoint how active Dylann was on the website, but the FBI say he was a frequent user, posting under the alias Lil外部lood1488—a clear reference to his new ideology. Dylann posted and commented on a variety of topics, all while living in a neighborhood with a large African-American population.
Hatewatch, based at the Southern Poverty Law Center, were the ones to stumble across Dylann’s online postings, or they were at least the first to make them public in his eventual manifesto that made its way online via a website he created. They wanted to verify its authenticity, so they ran the document through Grammarly, a piece of software with plagiarism detection capabilities. Despite the fact that only 2% of the document was identified as unoriginal by the software, a key 18-word passage in a specific section of the manifesto took them to The Daily Stormer website, where none other than LilBlood1488 had posted that exact 18-word passage, meaning then that LilBlood1488 was, in fact, Dylann Roof.
According to reports, he was self-indoctrinated online, and although he had been in touch with others via the forum boards, that’s as far as his relationship went with like-minded others. He never attended any meetings, and there was no evidence to suggest he had met anyone physically or that he had signed up with any organizations. He was a “lone wolf,” as they call it.
Away from the internet, Dylann kept his ideology away from loved ones and lived his life normally. He continued to do landscape work here and there but managed to secure a job at Clark’s Termite and Pest Control for a small period: one month in 2014 and one month in 2015. It isn’t clear whether he was let go or quit altogether, but co-workers’ descriptions of Dylann’s time there paint a picture of those same behaviors which had led him to drop out of school. Dylann was often spaced or zoned out while working. He would go and sit somewhere by himself, even though the rest of the crew were sitting together. He would fall asleep virtually anytime he was stationary.
One coworker recalled:
“One morning Dylann wandered off and started working on edging three houses down from the house we were working on. I had so much trouble getting his attention that I had to get in front of him to get him back on the right property. I asked Dylann about his hobbies and he told me he didn’t do anything, he just went home and sat in his room. I asked if he played video games and he replied that he looked at the walls all day.”
On December 22, 2014, he traveled all the way from Columbia to Charleston, 116 miles away, to visit the Boone Hall Plantation, before he made his way over to the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church at around 3:26 PM, before heading back home roughly seven minutes later. One could only conclude then that if the church hadn’t been selected already, then it certainly was now—or at least it was a target of his.
On February 23, 2015, Dylann contacted the church at around 7:43 PM, but the contents of that call are currently unknown. The following day, he traveled from Columbia all the way down to Charleston once again. This time he traveled close by to the church, but not in its immediate vicinity, and then he returned back to Columbia. Three days later, he made the same trip again, but this time he traveled to the Magnolia Plantation and to the church at around 8:10 PM. He stayed for over two hours and then made his way back home.
The following day, police were called to the Columbiana Center in Columbia to reports of a male acting suspiciously. When they arrived, they approached said man—that man being Dylann Roof, wearing all black. He had asked employees in several shops about their work schedules, amongst other similar personal questions; he wanted to basically see how they ran things. When police arrived at the scene, he was questioned and searched. Police found that Dylann was in possession of several strips of Suboxone, a prescription medication for treating opioid addiction. Although for therapeutic use, it can be used recreationally, and seeing as he didn’t have a valid prescription, he was arrested for a felony charge of drug possession, but was subsequently banned from the mall.
On March 13, 2015, Dylann had a run-in with the law once again. This time he’d been loitering in his parked car near a park in downtown Columbia. One of the officers who had arrested him at the mall a couple of weeks prior recognized him but was off-duty, so he called a colleague to investigate. When backup arrived, they conducted a search of his vehicle and found a forearm grip for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and six unloaded magazines. When asked about it, Dylann informed the officer that he wanted to purchase an AR-15 but didn’t have enough money to do so. No charges ever came from the interaction, as it wasn’t illegal in South Carolina to possess a forearm grip.
Although in March he didn’t have money for a gun, less than a month later he would have money provided for his birthday by his father, with which he would go on to purchase one. On April 11, 2015, Dylann Roof traveled 11 miles from his home to the Shooter’s Choice gun store, where he attempted to purchase a .45-caliber Glock handgun, eight days after turning 21.
Under federal law, the FBI has three business days to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to deny a purchase. If the Bureau can’t come up with an answer, the buyer can return to the dealer on the fourth day to purchase the gun. In a nutshell, the person taking a look into Dylann’s criminal past failed to obtain a police report by the time he went back into the store on April 16th. The three-day period was up, and the FBI never got back to the store, which meant he was able to obtain the gun.
From the time of first getting into trouble with the law all the way up until the purchase of the firearm, Dylann never made any trips to Charleston. But on the 25th of April, he made the trip once again. This time he stopped off at the church briefly before making his way to the Boone Hall Plantation, like he did previously. The following day, he was arrested by officers for trespassing on the Columbiana Center grounds, thereby violating his ban. The ban was extended for an additional three years, but ultimately he was let go. Throughout May of 2015, Dylann visited various plantations within the surrounding areas and visited the church on at least two occasions.
Rewinding the clock back to April of 2015, it’s believed that Dylann had joined Facebook, where he decided to reconnect with some friends from school. One of them was Joseph Meek. The pair hit it off instantly, sharing similar interests in taking a variety of drugs, watching movies, and playing video games—so much so, in fact, that a short time after reconnecting, Dylann had quit working and would basically live at Joseph’s home in the Red Bank community south of Lexington.
For the short period that he lived there, he got to know Joseph’s friends in the local area. They recall that on June 10, 2015, he blurted out that for the past several months, he had hatched a plan to shoot up a Charleston university, but didn’t give his exact motive as to why. They pressed him further to speak on the subject but could feel that it was some kind of slip-up; he went silent when pressed further on the topic.
Whether Dylann singled out Joseph or Joseph questioned him one-on-one about the shooting, Dylann let him in on his real plans—planning to shoot up an African-American church during a Bible study to “start a race war because nobody else would do it.” He added, “I’m going to bring extra ammunition to kill myself after.” We don’t know what Joseph’s initial reaction to the plans was, but he never approached law enforcement agencies to give them the heads-up about a potential massacre on the horizon.
The friend group recalled seeing Dylann on the morning of June 16, 2015. Everyone was heading out to a nearby lake and needed Dylann to take them, as he was the only one who drove. He was invited, but told everyone that he would decline the offer because he wanted to go to the cinema by himself to watch Jurassic Park. So, he dropped them off at the lake, waved everyone goodbye, and the next time anyone would see Dylann would be in an appeal from law enforcement to trace an unknown shooter responsible for nine deaths.
On June 17, 2015, parishioners and church leaders gathered at Mother Emanuel for the weekly Wednesday night Bible study class. The usual Bible study leader was their 74-year-old Reverend Daniel Simmons Sr., the backbone of the church. On this particular night, Reverend Simmons invited 59-year-old Reverend Myra Thompson, who was awarded her preaching certificate on that very same day. She was to lead the class for the first time and was excited about the opportunity, so she asked her close friend, 72-year-old Polly Sheppard, to attend for support.
49-year-old Reverend Depayne Middleton-Doctor, who was there for the study, had also received her preaching certificate earlier on that same day, just like Myra Thompson. Mother Emanuel’s lead pastor and at the time State Senator, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, was also in attendance. His wife, Jennifer Pinckney, and their six-year-old daughter were also present but waited for Reverend Pinckney in his study adjacent to the fellowship hall.
70-year-old Ethel Lance, the church sexton, also joined the Bible study that night. She was devoted to keeping the church clean and worked from early morning until late night, sometimes accompanied by her special-needs son, though on this night he wasn’t in attendance.
58-year-old Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, who was one of the most sought-after ministers in the whole of Charleston, was present. 58-year-old Cynthia Hurd, a hard-working librarian who wasn’t initially planning to go to the study, stayed that night as well. 58-year-old Felicia Sanders attended the study with her son, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders. The two were close, as was her 11-year-old granddaughter; she wasn’t Tywanza’s daughter, but relatives say he acted as a father figure towards her. Last but not least was 87-year-old Susie Jackson, the oldest in attendance and the matriarch of the Jacksons, the church’s largest family.
When all finally had arrived, the Bible study began. But at around 8:16 PM, an unfamiliar face pulled up looking to participate in the study. When Dylann Roof entered the hall, Sharonda announced, “Pastor, we have a visitor.” Although everyone present was African-American, they welcomed Dylann with open arms as someone new looking to learn about the word of God. Reverend Pinckney didn’t want Dylann to feel isolated, so he offered a seat next to him, and the study continued.
Dylann was said to have been stuck in with the study, offering his own meaning of certain scriptures, and had even shared a laugh when Depayne shared a story about returning library books. He was even captured here on Snapchat participating.
After 45 minutes, everyone who engaged in the study rose to their feet and shut their eyes for the closing prayer. As they did so, Dylann pulled out a gun and shot Clementa Pinckney several times. Instantly, everyone dove for cover under tables. Felicia Sanders described that moment like a machine gun going off.
When the shooting came to a brief stop, Daniel Simmons Sr. stood up and said, “Let me check out my pastor. I need to check on my pastor.” In response, Dylann shot him six times. Not wanting anyone to stand up to do the same, he began pacing around the church, shooting at the parishioners under the tables, and repeatedly reloaded his gun.
Felicia’s granddaughter was in an extreme state of distress, and at the age of six years old, was confused. “Granny, I’m so scared.”
“Just play dead,” Felicia whispered. The pair played dead in the church, soaked in blood. Felicia held her granddaughter’s face so tight she thought she was suffocating her.
Dylann Roof’s attention quickly turned to Polly Sheppard, who saw his boots from under the table as he walked towards her. She had been praying out loud.
“Shut up,” Roof snapped. “Did I shoot you yet?”
“No,” she replied.
“I’m not going to. I’m going to leave you here to tell the story.”
As this interaction was ongoing, Tywanza and Felicia had communicated with each other; they were both alive. Thinking he could calm Dylann, Tywanza stood up and pleaded with him, “Why are you doing this? We mean you no harm.”
Roof responded, “You are raping our women and taking over the nation.” With no further verbal response, Dylann shot Tywanza multiple times.
“9-1-1, what’s the address of the emergency?”
“People shot down here! Please send somebody right away! Emanuel Church… Emanuel AME, 110 Calhoun, and there’s people shot. He shot the pastor and he shot all the men in the church. Please come right away!”
“Okay, my partner’s going to be getting some help on the way while I get this information from you, okay? Stay on the line with me. Are you okay? Is he still in there?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid he’s still in here.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in Emanuel AME Church.”
“On what side? Where are you inside the church?”
“In the lower level. You’re in the lower level.”
“Where is the shooter?”
“He’s in the… in the office, please.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ve got officers en route to you. Don’t hang up with me. I want you to stay on the line with me. You stay as quiet as possible. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“What is… what is your name, ma’am?”
“Polly Sheppard.”
“All right, Miss Polly. Like I said, my partner’s getting some help on the way while I get this information from you, okay? You stay on the line with me.”
“And he’s coming! He’s coming, please!”
“Okay, ma’am. Are you able to… if he’s coming, I need you to be as quiet as possible. Is there something that you can hide under, like a table? Did you see him at all?”
“Yes, he’s a young, 21-year-old white dude.”
“Yes, ma’am. And you said that… were you able to see the gun? Do you know what kind of gun it was?”
“No, I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about guns.”
“Okay, that’s okay. And where are the weapons now?”
“He’s got it in his hand. He’s reloading. He’s reloading.”
“Okay, I need you to bear with me, okay? How many shots has he fired?”
“I don’t know, there’s so many. Three different rounds, all kind of… Oh god.”
“Okay, do you know what his name is?”
“No.”
“Okay, do you know what color shirt he had on or pants he had on?”
“He had on Timberland boots, but I don’t know his name. No, no, no.”
“Okay, who is that?”
“There’s so many people dead, I think. Oh my god.”
“You said there’s so many people dead? You think they’re dead?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, and I just want to make sure you’re at the Emanuel AME Church, 110 Calhoun Street. You’re doing a great job, Miss Polly, and I’ve got help coming to you, okay? I just need you to stay on the line with me. Is there a vehicle that he might leave in that you know of? What door did he come in?”
“There were about ten of us in the building.”
“Okay, are you all in the same area? Are there people upstairs? You’re all downstairs, okay. Is there… yes, ma’am. Miss Polly, I’ve got help coming to you as fast as they can. Is there a door that leads downstairs?”
“They’re both open.”
“Are you able… are you able to shut and lock those doors safely?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, if you don’t feel like you can move, then I don’t want you to move, okay? Um, Miss Polly, are you or anyone else in immediate danger? Okay, are you able to get yourself to safety? Can you talk to me freely?”
“No, I can’t… not really.”
“Okay, what’s the best way to get to you, Miss Polly, inside the building? What’s the best way to get to you?”
“They’re coming today, though… Yeah, somebody’s coming. You can hear somebody coming.”
“Yeah? Okay, I want you to be quiet… No, no… Oh, I think…”
“What’s going on, Miss Polly? Hello?”
Escape and Arrest
Dylann fired 74 bullets, killing nine people, riddling each with multiple gunshots. From the Bible study class, only Polly Sheppard, Felicia Sanders, and Felicia’s granddaughter survived. Jennifer and her daughter had also survived after taking cover in Reverend Clementa Pinckney’s study. After causing as much death as he could, Dylann attempted to take his own life, but he had run out of bullets. So, he left at roughly 9:06 PM and fled the scene.
Following the shooting, Dylann headed over to the Branch AME Church in Summerville, South Carolina. They too were supposed to have a Bible study night, as they did every Wednesday, but on the 17th it had been canceled for reasons currently unknown. GPS data showed that upon arriving at the church, his car slowed down and stopped for around three minutes. We’ll never know Dylann’s true intention, but it wouldn’t be outlandish to think that he wanted to continue his killing spree. He would later tell detectives that he was tired after the shooting, though; however, this statement could have been put forward as a defense for him.
The shooting set off a massive manhunt. Based on the church surveillance video, police publicized photos of a suspect and set up a tip line the next morning. After making nationwide headlines, callers, including members of Dylann’s own family, identified said suspect as him. Not expecting to survive the shooting, Dylann had no plan, and so he drove out of Charleston on an interstate highway and eventually headed towards Charlotte, North Carolina. At around 10:30 AM, police officers, acting on a tip from a member of the public, stopped Dylann’s car as he drove into Shelby, North Carolina.
Police Interrogation Transcript
“Can you tell us about what happened last night?”
“Whoa, yeah. I mean, I just… I went to that church in Charleston and, uh, I did it.”
“You did what? I mean, I know it’s tough sometimes to say. It’s not that I don’t want to say it because I don’t want to make myself seem guilty, I just don’t really like saying it, but I know sometimes we have to face those things—the realities.”
“We don’t want to put any words in your mouth, that’s why. Right, that’s why Agent Stansberry is asking him what it exactly is that you… that you… that you did do.”
“Well, I did… I killed them.”
“Oh, well, I guess… I mean, I don’t really know, well, what more… I mean, I don’t know how many people.”
“Boys? Yes. What kind of gun did you use?”
“A Glock .45.”
“Okay, was that… was that your gun or…?”
“Yes, I bought it from the gun store.”
“Which gun store did you buy that from?”
“Shooter’s Choice in West Columbia… well, it’s in Columbia, I’m not sure. They got the indoor gun range there.”
“Yeah, I’ve never used it, but yes, they have one, I think. Okay, how long ago did you purchase the weapon?”
“It’s… it’s July… oh, it’s June, okay. Right, right, so it was like… it was for your birthday.”
“Yeah, I bought it when I turned 21.”
“Yeah, yeah. So, so, all right, so we’re going back to the… to the church. You… you pulled out the gun and you shot them? Started shooting people, or how? I mean, how?”
“Yeah, that’s it, I mean.”
“So, do you know how many people you shot?”
“If I was going to guess, five. Five, maybe? I’m really not sure exactly.”
“Well, I’m not sure. Did you say anything to them before, or after, or during?”
“No, I didn’t say anything to them before, or anything before that.”
“What about… what about after?”
“Whoa, I think, like, during, I said like, ‘Don’t talk to me,’ or something like that, you know? In the middle, but I didn’t really talk to them.”
“How long… how long were you at the church before you actually, uh, before you… you pulled your weapon out? You said yourself you shot, you think, maybe five or so people. How long were you… were you at the church before you decided that you were…?”
“Well, I just went in the church, you know, and then I sat down with them for like, maybe 15 minutes. 15 minutes—it could have been 20, it could have been 10, but I think it was probably around 15.”
“Were they having a meeting or something, or…?”
“No, no, this was a Bible study class.”
“So you knew the Bible study class was going to happen?”
“Yes, because I had went there before and I asked them.”
“Oh, listen, you’ve been to the church before?”
“Well, not in it, but outside, and said, ‘When do you have Bible study?’ or, well, yeah, I just saw somebody get into their car and asked them.”
“When was that?”
“Oh, that was like… oh, yeah, that was probably, I don’t know, well, right, right before.”
“Or when you pulled out your gun and started to shoot her, right before, did you see… remember what you said or if you said anything to the people when you pulled…? Because I mean, I’m like…”
“Right, that’s what I did. I didn’t say anything to them before I pulled it out. Just not even one word, I didn’t say anything.”
“Did they… did they see or anybody react to you as you pulled the gun out, or were you already shooting before they knew what was happening?”
“I mean, they reacted after I shot.”
“Right, we understand, yeah. Right, I guess my question—it might have been a bad question—I was just trying to figure out, you know, some of that… I suddenly finally been on, but I pulled a gun out and everybody saw it, people might start to run or whatever.”
“No, no, no, it was very fast. It was not like I was like, you know… it was like a quick motion.”
“Can you show us, like, when you were sitting down and you did it, or did you stand up or what?”
“Yeah, I was sitting down. The first… the first… Can you show me like what you did? I mean, yeah, it was the same dude like this, or it was good, you know, and just started shooting up.”
“Yeah, we’ll go back, I’ll ask you some more questions. It was in the bag, but the bag’s there, I dropped it.”
“You dropped it?”
“Yeah, it was black, but look, it was like a thing you can buy at a sporting goods store, you know, for military people to hook on their whatever, their vest or whatever. But I just put it in my belt, and I had all my magazines and the gun in there when I walked in the church. This thing was right on me, in front of me, you know, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, they’re going to see it,’ you know? And obviously they did, because I mean, this thing is big, it’s heavy, you know? Because it’s got what, seven magazines, and I put 11 bullets in each magazine. They could hold 13, but I didn’t want any, like, to jam or anything like that, you know. But anyway, it’s still really heavy.
Anyway, they saw it, but I just sat down because I guess they just didn’t say anything, you know? And then I was sitting there, and I was like, you know, just thinking about whether I should do it or not, you know? That’s why I was sitting there for 15 minutes, just like, ‘Oh,’ you know, like… because I know I could have just walked out, you know? Because they didn’t say anything to me about what, you know, the thing I’m about, so I could have walked out, you know? And that’s why I was just thinking, you know? But then I just… you know, like I just… like, I just finally decided I had to do it.”
“Well, well, then that goes to the next question: why did you have to do it? I mean, that’s what… that’s what I don’t know.”
“Whoa, I had to do it because somebody had to do something. Black people are killing white people every day on the streets, and they rape… they rape white women—100 white women a day. That’s FBI statistics from 2005. You know, that’s 10 years ago, it’s not even being more now, who knows? It sounds unrealistic, but you break it down, that’s two a state. It’s really not… a really… you could probably… you know, the fact of the matter is what I did is so minuscule to what they’re doing to white people every day, all the time. And just because that doesn’t get on the news doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Everybody knows that the news is biased for Black people. Pretend it’s not, but we know it is.”
“When you said you had to do this because… so basically what you’re…”
“Nobody else is going to do it. Nobody else is brave enough to do anything about it, you know? Back in the late ’80s and the early ’90s, you know, we had skinheads and stuff like that. There’s no skinheads left, there’s no KKK. KKK never did anything anyway.”
“So basically, you were trying to make a… you’re trying to make a statement or prove a point on behalf of the white race, is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Did… did you talk to people or anybody in particular about this prior to making this decision to do this?”
“No.”
“So you came… you came about this decision solely, solely by yourself. All right. And did you… um, what’s the reason why you… because you said you… um, you’ve never been in that church before, right? But you said as you were driving by once, and correct me if I’m wrong, you saw somebody getting into a car.”
“So, yeah, I was walking.”
“You were walking and you saw somebody getting into a car, so you asked… you asked about Bible study, is that correct?”
“No, I just asked them, I said, ‘What is the church service, you know?’ And then she told me the church service and the Bible study or something like that, the times or something.”
“Was that an African-American woman or a white…?”
“Yes, yes.”
“Well, this is an African Methodist Episcopal—is that what AME stands for? I think… I think that’s what it stands for underneath.”
“So that’s why you chose that church?”
“Oh, yes, because I was looking for African-Americans.”
“Right, right.”
“I wasn’t going to go to another church, you know, because there could have been white people there.”
“So you… you didn’t want to kill any white people?”
“No, I just wanted to kill Black people.”
“All right. You know, you know, what was the reason why, um… because if you’re from… you lived with your dad for a while and you stayed at your mom’s for a while, what was the reason why you chose Charleston as your location? Why… why that particular area there?”
“Well, the reason I chose Charleston is because, you know, it’s just… it’s… I like Charleston, you know? It’s really nice down there. It’s a historic city, you know? One time, I think it had the highest ratio of Black people to white people in the whole country, from slavery, you know? And then the other reason is just because that AME church was historic, too, you know? It was a historic family church. I mean, I guess that’s pretty much the reason.”
“How did you find out about that AME church in Charleston, through research?”
“Yeah, I just looked at Black churches on the internet.”
“Yeah? Where’d you do that?”
“Uh, there’s a website called SCIWAY, like S-C-I-W-A-Y.net. It’s got a bunch of stuff about South Carolina.”
“See, you went on the internet to look to find Black churches, and you knew Charleston had a high Black population, too.”
“There’s Black churches in Columbia, it’s just… I don’t know, I just wanted to go to Charleston, I guess. But that church, the fact that that church was historical and had been around a long time…”
“Right.”
“That was going to… that was good. I mean, I guess I’m asking is, were you trying to make sure you were sending a message out? You wanted to send a message, you wanted people to know, ‘Hey, I got to stop this,’ or what, you know?”
“Right, that’s your… that was your message.”
“And that one’s right… right by downtown, right by King Street, you know. Did when you first walked in and they were having a Bible study, did anybody even acknowledge you were saying anything or say…?”
“Yeah, they gave me… so they were… don’t you these people do… right, but I mean, I didn’t, like I said, I didn’t say anything to them. They just handed me the sheet pretty much, just… you know, there wasn’t that many people there when you walked in, there were eight people.”
“Was it… was it the main sanctuary? Was it an… uh, what do you recall? When you walked in, there were eight people, or were they all positioned around, like, tables?”
“Around tables, yeah. It wasn’t in the sanctuary.”
“Okay, so it was around tables, and yeah, where did you position yourself? Are you in front of them, in like in the midst of them? Are you in back of them, to the side of them? Do you recall?”
“Well, you know, they just… there’s like a table here and a table here, you know, and I’m sitting there here, most of the other people were here.”
“Can you draw that out for me? Would you mind doing that, just… just…?”
“I can’t, yeah, just… just…”
“I have a better understanding, just like when you… when you walked in, just show me like where the tables were and who… where you were, okay? If you can, like, if you can like do like little circles to indicate where the people were, that’d pretty… that’s your recollection.”
“It’s like I said, most of the people were like over here, um, maybe like this, and then… but I was at this, too.”
“Put an X where you were. Was there anybody else at that table with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, but this is… yeah, that’s pretty… I mean, I don’t know, I don’t know, just probably about the right number, but I’m just trying to give you an idea. Right, this is the door, so you walked in and you said now we walked over here and they gave me, you know, a little sheet, and you said you put your bag down on the ground, is that what you said?”
“Oh, no, no.”
“Or you got the bag on you?”
“Yeah, the bag was on. Okay, I dropped the bag afterwards, like as I was leaving.”
“I got you. So you had… you had the bag on you. It’s about when you finally thought, ‘No, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got… I’ve got to,’ you know, you came here to do it, and you told yourself you guys thought… you had a thought about leaving, right?”
“Yes, I did.”
“But then you said, ‘No, I’m here, I gotta do it,’ right? And so you pulled your gun out of the bag. How many magazines did you have in your bag?”
“Eight, yeah, and one was in the gun.”
“Yeah, so for the… how many times did you reload?”
“All the times.”
“So you went through all the magazines?”
“Yes… no, no, actually, no. I went through seven magazines, and I took one magazine with one, which is still young.”
“And where’s the gun right now?”
“Well, it was in my car when they arrested… when they arrested me.”
“So the guy’s got one loaded mag. So you shot through… you had essentially, you said you put like 10 or 11 bullets in each magazine so the gun wouldn’t malfunction with a misfeed or whatever, right?”
“Right.”
“And so you… you… but you reloaded. You shot and reloaded seven times, or am I right? One of the magazines, and it will reload, it’s… yeah, because the last one you took with you, you shot one that was in there, shot it, went through six more magazines shooting, and then you loaded… Did you… so, but by that time, I mean, people that were already down, did you walk up and shoot them that had already, you know, um, gone to the floor?”
“It was sort of complicated because they were all like under the tables, you see what I’m saying? It’s not like… it was like, uh, you know, going around shooting people that were already dead or anything like that. It’s just when I shot a magazine, it’s like I just went, you see what I’m saying? Like at one person, you see what I’m saying?”
“So… so they… so when you started shooting, I guess you say you were still quick shooting, like maybe they didn’t even see where it was coming from, the first shots, and they all dove under the table.”
“Right, right, right. Everybody… everybody did, yeah.”
“And then you went around the tables to shoot them?”
“No, not… not exactly, you know, because there’s some people that I didn’t shoot. I think there’s two that I didn’t even shoot at all. Like, one woman was over here, and I didn’t even shoot her at all because she was like looking at me.”
“So you didn’t shoot that woman because she was looking at you?”
“It’s hard to shoot somebody anyway, right, right.”
“But the other people, with civilization, where did you shoot them? In the back or… or just wherever they were, however they were?”
“Right, however they were laying, I guess, like multiple times.”
“So the first magazine company, but you’d probably just start shooting. You go through that very quick, everybody dies on the table. You then reload the magazines, you like just get up and start moving around because people are under the table, just shooting them, you know?”
“Yeah, you know, I was… you know, I was just sort of pacing around, you know, because I was like freaking out a little bit, too, you know what I mean? It’s not… there were pauses in between, and I was thinking about what I should do and stuff, but I guess in a way, I guess you could say that’s what I was.”
“But… but did anybody try and run, or did no one…? I thought everybody was going to try to run out the door, but nobody did.”
“They know.”
“And… and nobody charged you to try and stop you?”
“All right. And we’ll come back to more, but so you… you go through… the one woman you didn’t shoot at all, she looked at you. I mean, there was another person who you said you didn’t shoot at—was that a woman or a man or…?”
“Yeah, I think it was a woman.”
“And did she look at you, too, or no?”
“No, she… she wasn’t looking.”
“Why didn’t you shoot her?”
“She might have got shot, I’m not saying she didn’t get shot, but I’m saying I didn’t aim to hurt her.”
“Okay, was there a reason why you didn’t aim at her?”
“No, I can’t really say a reason.”
“Okay, so after you shoot, do you leave all your magazines laying on the ground?”
“Yes, except you put a fresh one in, say, your eighth magazine, you live, right?”
“So you drop… you leave the bag there, you’ve got the gun. What do you do next?”
“Well, then I leave, right? That’s what I mean, but you go out the door and listen, okay.”
“And where did you go to? Is this a street parking right out here?”
“No, no, no, this… they’ve got a gate and then they’ve got parking.”
“So you went into the gate, parked?”
“Yes, yes.”
“And then got out, parked by the door, walked in, walked out. Would you mind initialing this? And right, right through a door right there. And this is… well, this is what you were, so later you can say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ I mean, just right through the door right there, you provide initials, like right above where… I don’t know if I said initially, that’s fine, that’s okay, you don’t have to, that’s fine.”
“But anyway, so you go and you get in the car and you… you leave. So where do you go?”
“That’s an absolute awe, that there was nobody out there. After I had shot that many bullets, I was like, ‘Oh my god, what are these cops doing? They’re not even really doing their job.’ If you hear how many shots—I don’t know how many shots that was, is it seven times eleven? Seventy-seven, you know? There’s not even a cop outside, you know? So obviously when I walked out that door, you know, I peeked out the door because I thought there was going to be somebody there ready to shoot me, you know what I’m saying? So, you know, that’s really why I had the last magazine, it’s not to shoot cops, it’s so I could shoot myself, you see what I’m saying? When they… when I saw a cop.”
“So you’re looking… you had it so if the law enforcement showed up, you were going to go like this?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t going to ever shoot any cops, I was going to shoot myself. But anyway, like I said, there was… there was no episode. I just got in my car and then I just drove out of Charleston, you know, onto the interstate, to 26. Like the interstate going back to Columbia, they would think it was in that direction, but I didn’t go back to Columbia.”
“Where’d you go to, Charlotte?”
“Singing… you drove up 26 to… did you drive up the interstate the whole way, drive to Charlotte?”
“Well, I just didn’t want to go back to Columbia, and I just, like I said, you know, I was still in awe that I even was driving at all, I even got away.”
“Sure, sure. Okay, so we’ll go back to where, you know, I had some more questions getting up or, you know, to that point. Well, is it a decent clothes you were wearing last night? So you… those are the Timberland boots and the black pants. Did you have a jacket or hoodie on or something?”
“Yeah, yeah. No, I had a velocity shirt.”
“Where’s that at now?”
“It’s in your car.”
“Okay, so this is those you… you were… and essential, we’ll come back for you.”
Trial, Sentencing, and Aftermath
On June 19, 2015, Dylann Roof was charged with nine counts of murder and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He appeared in Charleston County courts by videoconference for a bond hearing later on that day. Dylann was charged both by the state and federally. The state charges against him are ones that have already been stated, but moving forward, there would be three new charges of attempted murder. Those charges were handed down for the three people that had survived the shooting, although there were five in total—two of them, as you remember, were in Clementa Pinckney’s study.
The District Attorney, Scarlett Wilson, would seek the death penalty because more than two people were killed in the shooting and other lives were at risk. Dylann also faced 33 federal charges: nine counts of using a firearm to commit murder and 24 civil rights violations. 18 of the charges carried a federal death penalty.
Initially, Dylann pleaded not guilty to all the charges that were brought against him in reference to the federal charges. At the behest of his lawyer, he wanted to plead guilty, but his lawyer told him not to because, at that point, they didn’t know if the prosecution was trying to go with the death penalty.
To sum up, Dylann would be found guilty on all charges brought against him at a federal level. In the sentencing hearing, he showed no remorse for his actions and had, in fact, doubled down on his standpoint, telling everyone in the courtroom that he had to go through with his plans. He was sentenced to death.
To avoid a death sentence in the state trial, a plea deal was made: if he pleaded guilty to all the charges that were brought against him, he would avoid the state death penalty but would be sentenced to nine consecutive life sentences. The District Attorney explained to the victims’ families that although the death penalty was off the table, if somehow he was able to survive death row, the nine life sentences meant he would die in jail.
Since his sentencing, Dylann Roof has attempted to file for a retrial and has attempted to appeal his death sentence; all have been denied. The latest appeal came in October of 2022. Earlier on in the year, in March, his attorneys announced that they had asked the Supreme Court to resolve a dispute between them and their client, Dylann Roof, over a mental illness defense. You see, Dylann fought his attorneys to prevent them from portraying him as having mental health issues. The attorneys argued that they should have been allowed to remain on the case. It was announced in October, though, that the Supreme Court had refused to comment on the case, thus denying the appeal.
But it wasn’t just Dylann sentenced for his role in the case. Remember Joseph Meek, the man who knew about Dylann’s plan to shoot at the church? He was sentenced for his role in the case, too. After Dylann’s face had been plastered over the news, the friend group instantly knew it was Dylann; he had gone through with his plan. Although everyone but Joseph knew the true intention of the attack, when a friend came forward and told Joseph he wanted to tell police the gunman’s identity to help law enforcement, Joseph told him not to and caught a charge on that basis. He wasn’t charged for failing to tell police about the impending attack, since that’s not a crime under federal law. Instead, he was prosecuted for stopping said friend from calling the police to report Dylann as a suspect. He was facing eight years in prison, but after striking a plea deal, Joseph was sentenced to 27 months after admitting that Dylann did, in fact, tell him of his plans on that drunken night in June.
So where does that leave us today? Well, Dylann Roof is spending life on death row. He claims that he’s been the target of verbal abuse by prison personnel and feels like he’s being targeted due to the crimes he committed. In 2020, he was in the headlines with these claims and went on a hunger strike. Although he admits that he believes one day he’ll be released from prison by a sympathetic president, it’s good to know that he’ll rot in jail for the rest of his life or, better yet, will be put to death in the near future.
