Roommate Recalls When Charleston Suspect Saw Black Woman: ‘I’ll Shoot Your Ass’

Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof, center, is escorted from the Shelby Police Department in Shelby, N.C., Thursday, June 18, 2015. Roof is a suspect in the shooting of several people Wednesday nigh... Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof, center, is escorted from the Shelby 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
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A friend of the white, 21-year-old man suspected of massacring nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina told The New York Times that he remembered the suspect as “a racist.”

Dalton Tyler, who said he was a friend of Dylann Roof, told the newspaper about one incident where he and Roof were driving to a strip club and Roof referred to a black woman he saw using a racist word.

“I’ll shoot your ass,” Roof then said in reference to the black woman, according to Tyler.

Tyler, who in other news accounts was identified as Roof’s roommate, told The Times that he didn’t take the suspect’s language too seriously at the time.

“I was just like, ‘You’re stupid,’” Tyler told the newspaper. “He was a racist; but I don’t judge people.”

Tyler told ABC News on Thursday that he believed Roof had been planning the attack on the downtown Charleston church, Emanuel AME, for about six months.

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  1. And you didn’t think to tell him that’s wrong or to report it to someone.

    Last night’s Daily Show and Nightly Show covered a lot of ground but I’d like to add this…I really want people to look at this and understand that whatever behavior issues this man had he was a racist. He was not mentally ill. He did not suffer from Asperger’s or any such thing unless he’s got a freaking diagnosis.

  2. Avatar for ajm ajm says:

    I’d word that a bit differently: Regardless of whatever else the Charleston suspect may or may not be, he is clearly a racist.

  3. “He was a racist; but I don’t judge people.”

    Well, I guess that’s okay, except you listened to this guy talk about killing people, and himself, for six months and you thought nothing of it. I see why you don’t judge people, you are incapable of exercising judgement or critical thinking.

  4. Please tell Rudy and Rick that…

  5. Avatar for ajm ajm says:

    They already know… they just prefer to lie about it.

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