Months before taking the lives of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, Dylann Roof visited the South’s most notorious slave plantations and landmarks, and then shared his experiences on his blog.
According to Daily Mail:
The 21-year-old posted images of himself visiting the sites steeped in racial history on his blog – where he also penned a ranting, racist manifesto calling for a new civil war in America.
His website, LastRhodesian.com – which has now been removed from the web – featured a timeline of very disturbing photos, proving his behavior became more erratic as time went on.
Meanwhile, Dylann’s friends are speaking out on their experiences with him. BBC News reports:
Christon Scriven, 21, told the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan that Mr Roof “wanted to shoot that school up – UCA university of Charleston – it’s 3 miles up the street from that church.”
Mr Scriven said Dylann Roof “had no intention of harming those people in that church”.
He also said that he had “never said anything racist, never treated me any different”.
Roof’s friends didn’t believe he would follow through with the shooting, but they were scared that he could still turn violent.
National Rifle Association board member Charles Cotton says Charleston victim Clementa Pinckney is responsible for his own death, as well as the death of his church members.
In a now-deleted comment on Think Progress, Cotton had this to say:
Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.
To view photos of Dylann’s eerie past, click here. Our prayers go out to the victims’ families during this tragic time.
SOURCE: Daily Mail, BBC News, Gawker | PHOTO/VIDEO CREDIT: News Inc., Getty
Dylann Roof Visited The South’s Most Notorious Slave Plantations Months Before Shooting, Friend Claims He Isn’t Racist was originally published on globalgrind.com
