SC jail’s clerical error is acknowledged in gun buy

Associated Press

LEXINGTON, S.C.

A jail clerk made a mistake when entering information about the location of a drug arrest for church shooting suspect Dylann Roof, the first in a series of missteps that allowed Roof to purchase a gun he shouldn’t have been able to buy two months before the attack, authorities said.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon told The Associated Press in a statement that the jail discovered mistakes two days after Roof’s drug arrest, but the change wasn’t corrected in the state police database of arrests. So when a FBI examiner pulled Roof’s records in April, she called the wrong agency, and Roof was eventually allowed to buy the .45-caliber handgun that would be used in the June 17 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, authorities said.

FBI Director James Comey on Friday promised a full review when he said Roof should have never been allowed to buy the gun. The sheriff Monday also promised he was making changes that would flag discrepancies such as the one that appeared to let Roof slip through the cracks.

He didn’t name the employee who made the error or say if the worker faced any discipline.

The FBI allows a gun sale if it can’t give a definitive answer about whether someone can buy the gun after three days, which is what happened in Roof’s case. The FBI examiner knew Roof had an arrest record, but couldn’t find the documents.