Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Charleston shootings: Dylann Roof photos found online

by Alyssaa Mann asnd Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Charleston, SC

30 minutes ago


Images have surfaced online that appear to show the gunman that killed nine people at an African-American church in South Carolina posing with a gun.
The collection of photographs discovered on a website also show 21-year-old Dylann Roof burning the US flag and visiting a slave plantation.
In one image he is shown staring down the camera while sitting on a chair in camouflage trousers holding a gun.
It is unclear who posted the images on the site, which was found on Saturday.

Flag criticism

The website was taken offline on Saturday shortly after it was discovered. Internet records suggest its domain was registered in February but it is unclear who was behind it.
A law enforcement official, quoted by AP, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was looking into the website.
Data from the images show many of them were taken in April and May this year.

Many of the photographs show Mr Roof posing with the Confederate flag, a symbol used in the US south during the civil war when southern states tried to break away to prevent the abolition of slavery.
It is viewed by many as symbolising the white supremacy advocated by those states at the time.

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has joined calls for South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag flying outside its capitol building.
It comes after US President Barack Obama said on Friday he believed the flag belonged "in a museum".
Mr Roof was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murders of nine African-Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in downtown Charleston.

Police said he spent an hour sitting with parishioners inside the church before opening fire on them on Wednesday evening.
Crowds gathered outside the historic church on Saturday to hear pastors from across the US lead prayers. Many travelled hundreds of miles from across the country to pay their respects.
"There was an overwhelming feeling that made me drive here," Monte Talmadge, a 62-year-old army veteran who drove nearly 480km (300 miles) to get to Charleston, told Reuters.
Rallies are also due to be held across the state later on Saturday, with one planned in Charleston by the organisers of the Black Lives Matter movement, which began after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman over the killing African-American teen Trayvon Martin.
Up to 3,000 people are also expected to join hands in a march across the Ravanel Bridge, one of the city's main thoroughfares.
The church is due to reopen on Sunday for a service at 09:00 local time (13:00 GMT).

  • Cynthia Hurd, 54
  • Rev Clementa Pinckney, 41
  • Rev Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45
  • Tywanza Sanders, 26
  • Ethel Lance, 70
  • Rev Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49
  • Susie Jackson, 87
  • Rev Daniel Simmons Sr, 74
  • Myra Thompson, 59
The victims of the Charleston shooting



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