WASHINGTON — The man accused of killing nine black church members in Charleston, S.C., was motivated by racial hatred and a desire for “notoriety” when he opened fire inside a historic house of worship, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued Wednesday that makes him eligible for the death penalty.
The 33-count federal indictment charges Dylann Roof, 21, with hate crimes, firearms violations and obstructing the practice of religion in the June 17 shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The federal counts, announced by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, are in addition to state murder charges brought against Roof days after the shooting.
The Justice Department has not decided whether it will seek the death penalty against Roof, nor whether its prosecution will come before the state’s case. Because South Carolina has no hate-crimes law, federal charges were needed to address a motive that prosecutors believe was unquestionably rooted in racial hate, Lynch said.
Roof, who is white, appeared in photos waving Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence.
Roof, Lynch said, had for several months prior to the shootings conceived a goal of “increasing racial tensions throughout the nation and seeking retribution for perceived wrongs he believed African-Americans had committed against white people.”
To carry out those goals, he “decided to seek out and murder African-Americans because of their race,” Lynch said, adding he had purposefully selected the historic church to “ensure the greatest notoriety and attention to his actions.”
