The shooter who gunned down nine parishioners at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C., Wednesday night has confessed to the killings, according to news reports citing authorities who said he wanted to start a “race war.” Meanwhile, mainstream media is coming around to calling the incident an act of terrorism.
Dylann Roof, 21, opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church after sitting with the small bible study group for about an hour. While shooting the African-American congregants, authorities said, Roof apparently told them he was killing them because they were Black, saying, “You rape our women, and you’re taking over our country.”
In an interview with ABC News, Roof’s roommate said Roof “was big into segregation,” and was plotting his actions for six months. “I think he wanted something big like Trayvon Martin,” Joey Meek said. “He wanted to make something spark up the race war again.” Meek, however, never alerted authorities to his roommate’s plans.
