Dylann Roof, the young man who allegedly killed nine African Americans in a South Carolina church, will be indicted on at least 30 federal charges including “hate crimes,” investigators announced Wednesday. RELATED:VIDEO: Confederate Flag taken down in South Carolina Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.
Accused South Carolina shooter indicted with 33 federal charges, including hate crimes
The Associated Press broke the news, which was leaked to them by an anonymous high level official.
The AP reported that hate crimes are difficult for governments to prosecute “because it must prove that a defendant was primarily motivated by a victim’s race or religion as opposed to other factors frequently invoked by defense attorneys, such as drug addiction or mental illness.”
Roof, who was captured shortly after the shootings took place, reportedly sat and prayed with members of the church he would later allegedly attack.
Profiles of Roof describe him as a “withdrawn, drifting young man” and “too introverted.”
Photos of Roof posing with Confederate flags, weapons and donning symbols of white supremacy surfaced soon after his capture. The photos generated a heated debate around the current place of the Confederate Flag in modern American culture.
As a result, South Carolina voted to remove the confederate flag from it’s state house grounds.
