Mugshot of Roof taken by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, June 18, 2015
Born
Dylann Storm Roof
(1994-04-03) April 3, 1994 (age 30)
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Known for
Perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting
Criminal status
Incarcerated
Motive
White supremacy/nationalism
Far-right extremism
neo-Nazism
Desire to start a race war
Anti-black racism
Belief in the white genocide conspiracy theory
Conviction(s)
Federal Hate crimes resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 249) (9 counts) Hate crimes involving an intent to kill (18 U.S.C. § 249) (3 counts) Obstruction of religious exercise resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 247) (9 counts) Obstruction of religious exercise involving an intent to kill using a weapon (18 U.S.C. § 247) (3 counts) Use of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death (18 U.S.C. § 924) (9 counts) South Carolina Murder (9 counts) Attempted murder (3 counts) Possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime
Criminal penalty
Federal Death South Carolina 9 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 95 years
Details
Date
June 17, 2015 c. 9:05 p.m. – c. 9:11 p.m.
Location(s)
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Target(s)
African-American churchgoers
Killed
9
Injured
1
Weapons
Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun
Imprisoned at
USP Terre Haute
Dylann Storm Roof[1] (born April 3, 1994) is an American white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and mass murderer who is currently serving time on death row at USP Terre Haute for perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in the U.S. state of South Carolina.[2][3] During a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured a tenth person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war.[4] Roof's actions in Charleston have been widely described as domestic terrorism.[5]
Three days after the shooting, a website titled The Last Rhodesian was discovered and later confirmed by officials to be owned by Roof. The website contained photos of Roof posing with symbols of white supremacy and neo-Nazism, along with a manifesto in which he outlined his views toward Black people, among other groups.[6][7] He also claimed in the manifesto to have developed his white supremacist views after reading about the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin and Black-on-white crime.
On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted in federal court of all 33 federal charges (including hate crimes) against him stemming from the shooting; on January 11, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes.[8] On March 31, 2017, Roof agreed to plead guilty in South Carolina state court to all state charges pending against him—nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony—to avoid a second death sentence. In return, he accepted a sentence of life in prison without parole.[9] On April 10, 2017, Roof was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences of life without parole after formally pleading guilty to state murder charges.[10][11][12][13]
^"Attorney General Lynch Statement Following the Federal Grand Jury Indictment Against Dylann Storm Roof" (Press release). United States Department of Justice. July 22, 2015.
^Waters, Dustin; Berman, Mark (December 15, 2016). "Dylann Roof found guilty on all counts in Charleston church massacre trial". The Washington Post.
^Sack, Kevin; Blinder, Alan (December 15, 2016). "Dylann Roof Found Guilty in Charleston Church Massacre". The New York Times.
^Sack, Kevin; Blinder, Alan (January 5, 2017). "No Regrets From Dylann Roof in Jailhouse Manifesto". The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
^
Groll, Elias (June 18, 2015). "Was the Charleston Massacre an Act of Terrorism?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
Hartmann, Margaret (June 19, 2015). "Why the Charleston Shooter Should Be Called a Terrorist". New York.
Dahl, Julia (June 19, 2015). "Was the South Carolina shooting a hate crime or a terrorist attack?". CBS News.
Friedersdorf, Conor (June 22, 2015). "Why It Matters That the Charleston Attack Was Terrorism". The Atlantic.
Norris, Jesse J. (March 30, 2017). "Why Dylann Roof Is a Terrorist under Federal Law, and Why It Matters". Harvard Journal on Legislation. 54 (1). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University: 501–541.
Ghansah, Rachel Kaadzi (August 11, 2017). "A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof". GQ. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
McCord, Mary B. (August 21, 2017). "Criminal Law Should Treat Domestic Terrorism as the Moral Equivalent of International Terrorism". Lawfare.
^Cite error: The named reference Robles20June was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Bernstein20June was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Dylann Roof Gets Death Penalty For Racially Motivated Charleston Church Shooting". VannDigital. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
^Kinnard, Meg (March 31, 2017). "Dylann Roof to plead guilty to state murder charges, avoiding second death penalty trial". Chicago Tribune.
^"Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof pleads guilty to state murder charges". The Guardian. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
^Miczek, Jason (April 10, 2017). "Dylann Roof: Charleston Church Shooter Gets Nine Life Sentences in State Case". NBC News. Reuters. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
^Kinnard, Meg (April 10, 2017). "Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof pleads guilty, awaits execution". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
^"United States v. Roof, 252 F. Supp. 3d 469 | Casetext Search + Citator". casetext.com. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
Dylann Storm Roof (born April 3, 1994) is an American white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and mass murderer who is currently serving time on death row at USP...
United States v. Roof F. Supp. 3d 419(D.S.C. 2016) (officially the United States of America v. Dylann Storm Roof) was a 2017 federal trial involving mass...
history and is the deadliest mass shooting in South Carolina history. DylannRoof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, had attended the Bible study before...
his body after he murdered corrections officer Stephen Anderson, and DylannRoof's race war-inspired Charleston church shooting was influenced by the slogan...
judge on the trial of DylannRoof, who was convicted of 33 federal charges relating to the 2015 Charleston church shooting. Roof was convicted on all charges...
2015, the hairstyle was uncommon enough that its use by mass murderer DylannRoof was considered mildly noteworthy. The Anti-Defamation League has documented...
company came under fire for providing items for sale that celebrated DylannRoof, a neo-Nazi mass murderer. In June 2018, an article by Alex Dalbey in...
which had previously been used by other white supremacists, including DylannRoof, the perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting. In a manifesto reviewed...
is "no evidence" that the CofCC supports segregation. Mass murderer DylannRoof, the perpetrator of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, searched the...
hijacked by the white supremacist mass killer DylannRoof. In regard to the state trial of DylannRoof, Haley urged prosecutors to seek the death penalty...
shooter DylannRoof pleads guilty to state murder charges". The Guardian. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017. "Charleston Shooter DylannRoof Moved...
(20 June 2015). "Photos Of DylannRoof, Racist Manifesto Surface On Website". NPR. Retrieved 8 January 2024. Roof, Dylann Storm (2015). "rtf88.txt". lastrhodesian...
media coverage when the SPLC stated that white supremacist spree killer DylannRoof—who on June 17, 2015, shot nine African Americans to death in the Charleston...
theory in the context of a "white genocide". Anders Behring Breivik and DylannRoof were claimed as inspirations in his manifesto. The attack was linked...
Daniel Simmons. There was a tenth victim who was also shot but survived. DylannRoof, a 21-year-old white male, was arrested shortly afterwards and charged...
The Anti-Nazi League protested against the film's London premiere. DylannRoof, the perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting, had an image of Hando...
County, Virginia, repeating the "Diversity = white genocide" mantra. DylannRoof, the perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting that killed nine people...
supremacy, Islamic fundamentalism, and anti-government extremists such as DylannRoof, Robert Bowers, Wade Michael Page, Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Frazier...
Charleston church shooter DylannRoof and stated that he was "green but good" and "But thanks for the wake up call Dylann" as well as expressing homophobic...
African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina gunshot DylannRoof White supremacy John M. Pinckney Democratic 1905 US Representative Texas...
governments following the Charleston church shooting in 2015, in which DylannRoof, a white supremacist, shot and killed nine members of a black church...
22, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2016. Siegel, Jacob (June 29, 2015). "DylannRoof, 4chan, and the New Online Racism". The Daily Beast. Archived from the...
in connection with the Charleston church shooting, whose perpetrator DylannRoof discussed the Northwest Front in his manifesto, and was critical of its...
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. It has previously praised the actions of DylannRoof, Robert Bowers, Timothy McVeigh and Brenton Harrison Tarrant, and encouraged...