Parishioners let into church; FBI reviews online manifesto

Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C.

Parishioners were let into the bullet-scarred Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church on Saturday, getting a firsthand glimpse of the room where nine people from their congregation were slain.

Around that same time, two federal law-enforcement officials said the FBI was investigating a manifesto purportedly written by the suspected gunman, 21-year-old Dylann Roof.

The website linked to Roof contained photos of him holding a burning American flag and standing on one. In other images, he was holding a Confederate flag, considered a divisive symbol by civil-rights leaders and others.

The hate-filled 2,500-word essay talks about white supremacy, and the author says “the event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case.”

Martin was an unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot in Florida in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Martin was walking home, got into a confrontation with Zimmerman and was shot.

Prosecutors accused Zimmerman of profiling Martin, but he was acquitted of murder. The manifesto said “it was obvious that Zimmerman was in the right” and that the case led him to search “black on White crime” on the Internet.

“I have never been the same since that day,” it said.

It’s unclear if Roof wrote it, but the rants are in line with what he has told friends and what he said before purportedly opening fire inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night.

Two federal law-enforcement officials close to the investigation said the FBI is aware of the website linked to Roof and is reviewing it. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the case.

Hundreds of protesters walked down the streets of Charleston on Saturday evening, chanting “Black lives matter” and “We can’t take it no more.”