Arrest In Charleston SC Black Church Massacre

 

 

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) _ Dylann Storm Roof drove around with a Confederate flag on his license plate _ not exactly an unusual sight in the South.

But on his Facebook page, he wore a jacket with the flags of the former white-racist regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia.

A picture is emerging of the 21-year-old white man arrested in the shooting deaths of nine people during a prayer meeting at a historic black church in Charleston.

The Wednesday night attack was decried by stunned community leaders and politicians as a hate crime.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that tracks hate organizations and extremists, says it was not aware of Roof before the rampage.

And some friends say they did not know him to be racist.

One high school buddy says Roof had black friends.

charleston church massacre

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) _ The police chief in Charleston, South Carolina, says the white man suspected of killing nine people inside a historic black church has been captured in North Carolina.

Chief Greg Mullen says 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof was arrested Thursday during a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina.

Mullen said previously that Roof stayed at a prayer meeting for nearly an hour on Wednesday night before he opened fire, killing three males and six females.

Among the dead was state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.

Names of the other victims haven’t been released. Officials have said they are waiting until families are notified.