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.
The 41-year-old Pinckney was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time.
The shooter remains at large. Police released photographs from surveillance video of a suspect and a possible getaway vehicle.
A Justice Department spokesman says federal officials are opening a hate crime investigation into the fatal shooting. The spokesman said Thursday that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina are opening the investigation.
The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name because the federal investigation has not been officially announced.
The city of Charleston has opened an assistance center for families of the victims. City spokeswoman Barbara Vaughn says the center will be based at a hotel and will be staffed by local, state and federal victim services personnel, as well as a group of Charleston-area chaplains.
The city’s statement on the assistance center asks for privacy for families of the victims.
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