In addition to the nine state murder charges suspected Charleston shooter Dylann Roof is facing, federal investigators are also considering bringing hate-crime charges against the 21-year-old, according to a New York Times report.
Sources told the New York Times that there is a consensus among officials in the Department of Justice and FBI that federal charges are necessary in the case, given the apparent racial motivations behind the massacre.
Unlike other states, South Carolina does not have a state hate-crime law to address the racial aspects of the attack that left nine African Americans dead in a historic black church last week, making federal charges more likely, officials said.
“This directly fits the hate-crime statute. This is exactly what it was created for,” one law enforcement official, speaking anonymously, told the Times.
When asked to comment by the Times, a Department of Justice spokesperson only said that the investigation was ongoing. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had previously announced Thursday the agency had opened a hate-crime investigation.
Really working the crystal ball overtime, eh NYT?
Ah do declare! Who would have thought a modern, forward looking state like South Carolina would not have hate crime legislation?
I want to know what Roof is thinking, seeing white people outraged at him and black people forgiving him. It doesn’t look like a race war to me.
If his ideology almost shook in an hour, I can only wonder how fractured it is now.
But not the rest of those ignorant people out there filled with hate of the “other”…
whoever that is in their little world.
A big “duh” to this one. Obviously a Hate Crime, not like many on the media calling for it to be a “Terror Attack”, which is not likely and takes away from the true motivation. Racial hatred. Period. The professionals like Lynch and Comey know a lot more than the media talking heads. Anyone reading his manifesto can see he was not attacking US policy (like Al Qaeda or McVeigh types), he was attacking race, almost all of it anti-black.
Plus as noted SC does not have Hate Crime Laws, so if the Feds don’t press this as a Hate Crime, it won’t be recorded as such for statistical purposes. It’s very important historically and statistically for this to be recorded as a Hate Crime.