Dylann Roof
Dylann Storm Roof (born April 3, 1994) is an American white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and mass murderer who is currently serving time on death row at USP Terre Haute for perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. During a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured a tenth person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. Roof's actions in Charleston have been widely described as domestic terrorism.
Dylann Roof | |
|---|---|
Mugshot of Roof taken by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, June 18, 2015 | |
| Born | Dylann Storm Roof April 3, 1994 Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Known for | Perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
| Motive |
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| Conviction(s) | Federal Hate crimes resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 249) (9 counts) Hate crimes involving an intent to kill (18 U.S.C. § 249) (3 counts) Obstruction of religious exercise resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 247) (9 counts) Obstruction of religious exercise involving an intent to kill using a weapon (18 U.S.C. § 247) (3 counts) Use of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 924) (9 counts) South Carolina Murder (9 counts) Attempted murder (3 counts) Possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime |
| Criminal penalty | Federal Death South Carolina 9 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 95 years |
| Details | |
| Date | June 17, 2015 c. 9:05 p.m. – c. 9:11 p.m. |
| Location(s) | Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Target(s) | African-American churchgoers |
| Killed | 9 |
| Injured | 1 |
| Weapons | Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun |
| Imprisoned at | USP Terre Haute |
Three days after the shooting, a website titled The Last Rhodesian was discovered and later confirmed by officials to be owned by Roof. The website contained photos of Roof posing with symbols of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, along with a manifesto in which he outlined his views toward Black people, among other groups. He also claimed in the manifesto to have developed his white supremacist views after reading about the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin and Black-on-white crime.
On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted in federal court of all 33 federal charges (including hate crimes) against him stemming from the shooting; on January 11, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes. On March 31, 2017, Roof agreed to plead guilty in South Carolina state court to all state charges pending against him—nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony—to avoid a second death sentence. In return, he accepted a sentence of life in prison without parole. On April 10, 2017, Roof was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences of life without parole after formally pleading guilty to state murder charges.