Those are the words [allegedly] spoken by the South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof before he opened fire and killed nine church-goers, according to a witness who spoke to NBC. No surprise, then, that the Department of Justice is investigating the shooting as a hate crime. foxnews.com reports that “In addition to the Facebook picture [above which they say reveals an introvert but may well indicate prescription drug abuse], Roof was known to drive around with a Confederate flag on his license plate, which is not unusual in the south. A friend reportedly posted a picture on Facebook of Roof sitting on the hood of a black car with the plate that read, ‘Confederate States of America.'” And yet . . .
Some friends say they did not know him to be racist. One friend from White Knoll High School said Roof had black friends. The Daily Beast reported that many of his friends on Facebook are also black.
“I never heard him say anything, but just he had that kind of Southern pride, I guess some would say. Strong conservative beliefs,” John Mullins, who went to school with Roof, told The Daily Beast. “He made a lot of racist jokes, but you don’t really take them seriously like that. You don’t really think of it like that.”
Mullins, however, told the news site that Roof used drugs.
“He was like a pill popper, from what I understand. Like Xanax, and stuff like that,” he said.
Reuters reports that Roof’s uncle Carson Cowles was “concerned” about his nephew several years ago, because he “stayed in his room a lot of the time.” He tried to “mentor” his nephew, but that didn’t work out. Obviously.
Cowles also revealed that his Dylann’s father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his 21st birthday.
“I actually talked to him on the phone briefly for just a few moments [some time before the shooting] and he was saying, ‘well I’m outside target practicing with my new gun.'”