Roommate Says Charleston Suspect Planned Shooting For 6 Months

Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday night at the... Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Sheby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday night at the historic The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The roommate of the white, 21-year old man who allegedly massacred nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina said Thursday that he thought the suspect had been planning the attack for about six months.

Dalton Tyler told ABC News that he’d known Dylann Storm Roof for about seven months to a year. Tyler told the news outlet that he last saw Roof about a week ago and knew he’d been planning something like the Charleston church attack “for six months.”

“He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Tyler told ABC News. “He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”

Tyler described Roof as “on and off” with his parents, according to ABC News. Members of Roof’s immediate family have not given extensive comment on his alleged crime.

A woman who on Thursday answered a cellphone belonging to Roof’s mother, Amelia, told Reuters “We will be doing no interviews ever.”

A reporter for the Post And Courier newspaper tweeted that a man who answered the door at Roof’s Eastover, South Carolina home declined to speak with reporters and told them get off his property.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. And…and…and you didn’t think to tell someone that your roommate is busy planning on shooting people?

  2. There is no crime of misprision of felony–the failure to report the plan to commit a crime before it occurs any more. But you would think that this man might have figured that he should say something.

  3. In the old south it’s called, “just some white boy talking”.

  4. “He was big into segregation and other stuff,” Tyler told ABC News. “He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.”

    And what was Dalton Tyler’s response? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

  5. And neither Roof nor his roomie ever mentioned any of his plans in any communication, otherwise the NSA would have been all over him like white on rice.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

178 more replies

Participants

Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for alliebean Avatar for ajm Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for jootjoint Avatar for sooner Avatar for feathered_head Avatar for leftflank Avatar for chammy Avatar for mrcomments Avatar for mantan Avatar for callmeeric Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for blueberrytomatosoup Avatar for grawk Avatar for joelopines Avatar for pippenpippen Avatar for bayouradio Avatar for hora_del_cafe Avatar for exspectator Avatar for dnl Avatar for darrtown Avatar for occamsrazor2 Avatar for canadianhere

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: