South Carolina shooter Dylann Roof indicted on hate crime charges
Jul 22, 2015, 12:35 PM | Updated: 12:37 pm
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The man accused of slaying of nine black church members
in Charleston last month has been indicted on dozens of federal charges,
including 12 hate crime counts.
Documents released Wednesday show a federal grand jury indicted 21-year-old
Dylann Roof on the charges. The indictments include a dozen allegations of
obstructing someone’s religious practice, a charge that can potentially carry
the death penalty in the federal system.
Federal charges have been expected since Roof was arrested following the June
17 shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown
Charleston. Roof, who is white, appeared in photos waving Confederate flags and
burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial
violence.
Prosecutors haven’t said if they’ll seek the death penalty against Roof on
state charges including nine counts of murder.