The man accused of killing nine
black churchgoers in South Carolina last month was able to buy a gun due
to a background check failure, the FBI says.
Dylann Roof should
have been stopped from purchasing a weapon due to a felony charge, FBI
chief James Comey told reporters on Friday.
But he said the charge was either incorrectly entered into a background check system or mishandled by analysts.
Roof is facing nine counts of murder over the 17 June attack in Charleston.
Speaking
to reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington DC, Mr Comey outlined a
series of missed opportunities and incomplete paperwork that allowed Mr
Roof to buy a firearm.
Mr Roof, 21, was charged with possessing
drugs just weeks before the attack on the Emanuel AME Church, and police
said he admitted to the offence.
That admission should have been
enough to stop him from buying a weapon, Mr Comey said, but the offence
was incorrectly added to Mr Roof's record.
This meant the FBI
analyst doing the mandatory background check on Mr Roof did not see it.
"If she had seen that police report," Mr Comey said, "that purchase
would have been denied."
'We are all sick'
He
said he learned about the problem on Thursday night and FBI officials
were meeting with relatives of the nine victims on Friday.
An
internal review into how the agency uses criminal background checks in
gun transactions has been launched. The FBI runs background checks for
gun dealers in about 30 states, including South Carolina.
"We are all sick that this happened. We wish we could turn back time," he added.
An image of a gun that was posted on a website believed to have been owned by Dylann Roof
Mr Comey's comments came on the
same day that South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from the
capitol grounds in a ceremony attended by some relatives of the church
shooting victims.
The flag was the battle emblem of southern
states in the US Civil War and was raised over South Carolina's
statehouse in 1961 to mark the 100th anniversary of the conflict.
Critics
have long called it a symbol of slavery and the backlash against it
grew when pictures of Mr Roof posing with the banner were discovered
online.
Mr Roof was arrested the day after the shooting more than 200 miles away in North Carolina and then flown back to Charleston.
He appeared in court via a video link for a bail hearing last month and is next expected in court in October.
What stops you from buying a gun in the US
having served a prison term of more than a year
being the subject of an active felony or misdemeanour warrant
a conviction for using or possessing drugs in the last year
multiple arrests for using or possessing drugs within the last five years, with the most recent in the last 12 months
being in the US illegally
being dishonourably discharged from the US armed forces
Anger at the presence of Confederate symbols on public property in the US south is growing.
The
Confederate battle flag has been removed from Alabama's state capitol
and Mississippi officials have urged the state flag have the emblem
removed.
The backlash against the flag was sparked by a mass shooting at a black church in South Carolina last week.
Nine worshippers were killed and the suspected gunman has appeared in photos holding the flag.
Police believe the slaughter at a bible study group last week was racially motivated.
The New York Times reported that the US Department of Justice "will likely file federal hate crime charges" against Dylann Roof.
His
embracing of the flag, which was the battle flag of the southern
states, has prompted politicians to shift positions on this once revered
emblem of southern identity.
Four Confederate flags were taken
down from a Civil War monument outside the state capitol in Montgomery,
Alabama, after Governor Robert Bentley said he did not want the flag to
be a "distraction".
Meanwhile, debate has been revived in Mississippi over the presence of a
smaller version of the rebel flag within the current state flag.
Mississippi's House Speaker has called for the state flag to be
changed and Senator Roger Wicker has said it should be in a museum.
"I
have not viewed Mississippi's current state flag as offensive," Mr
Wicker said, but said many of his fellow citizens "feel differently" and
"our state flag increasingly portrays a false impression of our state
to others".
Other developments around the south include:
South Carolina - Governor Nikki Haley and several
prominent leaders have called on the state's legislature to remove the
flag from the statehouse grounds
Georgia - Governor Nathan Deal says the state will redesign a car licence plate that features the flag
Virginia - Governor Terry McAuliffe says he wants licence plates featuring the flag to be replaced
Mississippi - State House Speaker Philip Gunn has
called for the state to remove a smaller version of the rebel flag that
is inset in the state's official flag
Kentucky - US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
has called for the removal of Confederate President Jefferson Davis'
statue from the state Capitol's rotunda
Opposition to the flag in southern political circles has been
mirrored in the commercial world, with major retailers like Amazon and
Walmart removing products with the design.
Retailers saying 'no' to the flag
Walmart
Sears
eBay
Amazon
Etsy
Google Shopping
several flag makers
Confederate groups argue they should not be connected with Roof's actions.
"First
it's the flags, then the monuments, then the streets' names, then the
holidays," said Kelly Barrow, commander in chief of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans.
"I feel like it's open season on anything Confederate."
The Confederate battle flag became a potent symbol for the southern
states fighting the Civil War as they sought to break away from the
union.
It is seen by some as an icon of slavery and racism while others say the banner symbolises their heritage and history.
The battle flag's resurgence in the US South occurred in the mid-20th century, during the civil rights movement.
Birth of a flag
seen today on houses, bumper stickers and T-shirts (and Mississippi flag, above)
sometimes accompanied by the words "If this shirt offends you, you need a history lesson"
but it was never the official national flag of the Confederacy, rejected in 1861
instead adopted as battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee
it fast became a potent symbol of Confederate nationalism, more popular than the official national flag
The African-American church in which nine parishioners were shot dead in South Carolina is to reopen for services on Sunday.
Members of Emanuel AME church met again on Saturday in the room where their friends died on Wednesday.
Many more people are expected to attend the service at 09:00 (13:00 GMT).
Meanwhile,
police are investigating an online post, possibly by the gunman, that
appears to outline his motivation for the attack.
One of those who attended Saturday's meeting, Harold Washington, said the church's doors would be open to all on Sunday.
"We're gonna have people come by that we've never seen before and will probably never see again, and that's OK," he said.
"It's a church of the Lord - you don't turn nobody down."
Survivors say Dylann Roof spent close to an hour attending a church service on Wednesday before opening fire.
Crowds gathered outside the historic church on Saturday to hear
pastors from across the US lead prayers. Many travelled hundreds of
kilometres from across the country to pay their respects.
"There
was an overwhelming feeling that made me drive here," said Monte
Talmadge, a 62-year-old army veteran who drove nearly 300 miles (480km)
to get to Charleston.
A rally was also held in the city by the
Black Lives Matter movement, which began after the 2013 acquittal of
George Zimmerman over the killing of an unarmed African-American
teenager, Trayvon Martin.
'Take it down'
In
South Carolina's state capital, Columbia, protests took place to demand
the removal of the Confederate flag from the capitol building.
The
flag was a symbol used by southern states in the civil war, when they
tried to break away to prevent the abolition of slavery.
It is viewed by many as a sign of the white supremacy advocated by those states at the time.
The protest followed US President Barack Obama's remark that the flag belonged "in a museum".
Protesters chanted "Take it down" and sang We Shall Overcome, an anthem of the black civil rights movement.
On Friday, South Carolina's Republican state representative Doug Brannon told MSNBC that he planned to introduce legislation to remove the flag.
On Saturday, images emerged on a website showing Dylann Roof posing
with the Confederate flag. In others, he is seen burning the US flag and
visiting a former 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.
The website - since taken down - also carried a 2,000-word racist manifesto, the origins of which are also unknown.
The author says Charleston was chosen for the attack because of its history of slavery and its large black population.
Internet records suggest the website's domain was registered in February but it is unclear who was behind it.
A law enforcement official, quoted by AP, said the FBI was looking into the website.
Data from the images show many of them were taken in April and May this year.
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).
Relatives of some of the nine
churchgoers shot dead in South Carolina have addressed the suspected
gunman in court and said they forgive him.
Dylann Roof, 21, appeared in court in Charleston to face nine murder charges.
He
showed no emotion as relatives of the victims addressed him directly.
"I forgive you" said one victim's daughter, fighting back tears.
Police are treating the killings at the African-American church on Wednesday night as a hate crime.
A
woman who identified herself as the daughter of Ethel Lance said: "You
took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her ever
again. I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you. And
have mercy on your soul."
Anthony Thompson, a relative of Myra Thompson, told him to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ.
"I forgive you and my family forgives you," he said.
The
judge set Mr Roof's bond at $1m (£630,000) for the weapons possession
charge but could not place a bond on the murder charges due to a legal
technicality.
Mr Roof will now remain in jail, at least until a high court sets the bond for the murder charges.
An attack on an African-American church in South Carolina that has left nine dead is thought be racially motivated.
The
suspected gunman Dylann Roof has been pictured wearing white
supremacist iconography and reportedly told his black victims: "I have
to do it... You rape our women and you're taking over our country, and
you have to go."
Here we look at who the white supremacists are in the United States and what defines them.
Who are they?
Like
any sub-culture, they are far from a homogenous grouping but what
defines them is hatred - usually directed at race and the government.
Weapons
are a key part of their ideology: far-right websites dedicate entire
sections to recommending what guns and other weapons to buy.
Nazi ideology is one symbol seen in nearly all far-right groups, with tattoos of swastikas common.
What do they believe?
That Caucasian/Aryan people are from a superior gene pool, and that
all other minorities are inferior. There is a particularly embittered
hatred towards black people linking back to slavery, but also an
increasing hatred towards Hispanics as that group has grown due to
migration.
Unsurprisingly, given the long-standing affinity with
Nazi ideology, Jews are also hated. A commonly held belief is that the
US government is controlled by Jews, denoted by the acronym ZOG, which
stands for Zionist Occupied Government.
How do they view Charleston attack?
Online
extremist networks have erupted with news of the shooting. One thread
on the major white-supremacist forum Stormfront had over 140,000 views.
Users expressed a variety of opinions, but the majority used racist
language and were insulting towards the dead. Pejorative and offensive
racial terms were used, with some describing the gunman as a hero.
Others
criticised the deaths of churchgoers and argued that the bad publicity
would damage their cause. However, there was little regret for the
actual loss of life.
There are also claims that the attack is a Jewish conspiracy designed to discredit white supremacist causes.
How many groups exist?
Reliable
data is hard to come by, as you would expect from a mostly underground
culture. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) tracks extremist groups
across the US - the majority of which are white supremacist - and
estimates there were 784 active groups in 2014. In South Carolina, there were 19 groups, including the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the League of the South.
Analysts
and law enforcement officials point towards the rising threat of
"anti-government terrorists". They are individuals on the far right who
believe in extreme political conservatism and see the American
government as an oppressor, but more often than not this is tied to
hatred of black people and anti-Semitism.
Last year, a survey of
382 law enforcement agencies found that "74% reported anti-government
extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their
jurisdiction."
Several studies have found that home-grown
extremism attacks are far more common than the more widely publicised
"jihadist" attacks.
Since 9/11, right-wing extremists attacks average 337 per year compared with nine per year by Muslim Americans. Other studies using different methodology also show significantly more far-right than jihadist attacks. The University of Maryland found 65 attacks by right-wing extremists compared with 24 by Muslim extremists.
To give a sense of how diverse the threat is, the FBI has even warned that law enforcement may be infiltrated by the far right.
Lone wolf
White supremacy has increasingly splintered over the years. Now the
major threat is believed to be posed by "lone wolves". This phenomenon
is believed to have been encouraged by the internet, allowing loners to
talk to others with similar beliefs.
In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security said "that white supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat," highlighting the difficulty posed in tracking individuals working alone. aA study
by the SPLC found that in the past six years, "74% of the more than 60
incidents examined were carried out, or planned, by a lone wolf, a
single person operating entirely alone".
One notable recent attack was the murder of six people at a Wisconsin Sikh temple by Michael Page in 2012.
Are they all Klu Klux Klan?
No.
America's most infamous racist organisation that terrorised black
Americans for much of the 20th Century is a pale shadow of what it was.
The organisation never recovered from internal power struggles and heavy
FBI infiltration of the 1970s. The Anti-Defamation League estimates
that there are 35 Klan groups left in the US, but many of those are run
by just a solitary member.
It is still estimated there are over
5,000 KKK members but they are split into small local organisations
using Klan as some part of their name. The organisation's real power is
symbolic. Its iconic white hood remains a recruitment badge for white
supremacists.
How can you spot them?
Although
a disparate group of individuals, neo-Nazi ideology is common among
white supremacists. Besides swastikas, the number 88 is used as a hidden
Nazi symbol. H is the 8th letter in alphabet so 88 = HH = Heil Hitler.
The
photograph Dylann Roof used on his Facebook profile page showed him
wearing the flags countries with a history of racial segregation. The
flag of the former British colony Rhodesia, which is now known as
Zimbabwe and apartheid-era South Africa. Both nations are held up as
racially segregated utopias within the white supremacy movement.
Prayers have been held across the
United States after the killing of nine people at a historic
African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The suspect, Dylann Roof, 21, was detained during a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina.
After a court appearance on Thursday, Mr Roof waived his right to extradition and was flown back to South Carolina.
Six women and three men, including the pastor, died in the attack. A hate crimes investigation has been launched.
Several
churches in Charleston were full to overflowing on Thursday evening as
prayer services were held. Some services were held outdoors.
Outside the Emanuel AME Church, where the attack took place, hundreds gathered in soaring heat to pay tribute.
"We
really have to fight together to go on and to live a civilised life
where race doesn't matter," said one woman, Martha Watson.
At a
vigil for victim Sharonda Singleton, her teenage children told the BBC
they had forgiven the killer and wanted to focus on moving on in a
positive way.
Services were held in several other cities, including Miami, Detroit and Philadelphia.
In
New York, services and protests took place, with placards including
such messages as "Black Lives Matter" and "Stop killing black people".
Richard Price, executive assistant at the Harlem Church of Christ,
said: "That someone would come and infiltrate that sacred space, one of
the only spaces we ever really have, and to violate that space, and then
to shoot the place up...
"This is a deep, deep-seated hurt that may never ever heal."
A
prayer vigil was also held outside the US Capitol. Senate chaplain
Barry Black said: "Our hearts ache because, in the future, people will
feel fear in the house of God when they should feel peace and serenity."
US
President Barack Obama said he and his wife had known several members
of the Emanuel AME Church, including pastor, Clementa Pinckney.
Mr
Obama called the church a "sacred place" in the history of Charleston
and spoke of his confidence that the congregation and the community
would "rise again".
He also raised the issue of gun ownership, saying: "At some point, we
as a country have to reckon with the fact that this type of massacre
does not happen in other advanced countries".
Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US had to face "hard truths" on guns.
"How
many innocent people in our country, from little children to church
members to movie theatre attendees, how many people do we need to see
cut down before we act?"
At the scene: BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan
People
are hurting in Charleston. But for the hundreds who packed into the
gymnasium at the Goose Creek High School, it was also a reminder of the
importance of love.
Sharonda Singleton coached the girls athletics
team here. As her photo rested on an easel on the polished floors in
the vast sports hall, her friends and family paid tribute.
Speaking
for the first time since the deadly attack on the AME church where she
worshipped, Sharonda's two children, Chris and Camryn, told me they
forgive the man who killed her.
"We already forgive him and there's nothing but love from our side of the family," Chris told me.
Many
will find this incomprehensible. Charleston is often called the Holy
City for the number of churches it is home to, and the role religion
plays here. For some, like Chris and Camryn, unwavering faith is the
only way to turn such a devastating loss into something positive. The police chief in Shelby said Dylann Roof was arrested after a tip-off from a local florist, Debbie Dills.
"At first I thought, nah, it couldn't be," Mrs Dills said. "I didn't want to overreact."
Mrs Dills trailed the suspect's Hyundai car while talking on the phone
to police, who then pulled the car over near a supermarket.
Dalton Tyler, who said he was a friend of Mr Roof, told ABC News the
suspect had spoken in support of racial segregation and had "said he
wanted to start a civil war".
Mr Roof had attended a Bible study
group for nearly an hour at the church before becoming aggressive and
violent, Charleston's county coroner said.
Eight people died at the scene and one person died later in hospital. There were three survivors.
Along with Rev Pinckney, a 41-year-old father of two, the other victims have been named
as Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Ms Singleton, 45; Myra
Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; the Rev Daniel Simmons
Sr, 74; and DePayne Doctor.
Cynthia Taylor, a niece of Ms Jackson, said she had spoken to a
survivor, Felecia Sanders, who said she had played dead as she lay on
top of her granddaughter to protect her.
Police and officials were quick to call the attack a hate crime.
The Emanuel church
is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in the US south.
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King gave a speech there in April
1962.
Tensions have been heightened since the shooting two months
ago of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man by a white police officer in
North Charleston, which prompted angry protests.
The officer has since been charged with murder.
Rev
Pinckney - who was also a Democratic state senator in South Carolina -
had recently sponsored a bill to make body cameras mandatory for all the
state's police officers.
