WASHINGTON
A white gunman who confessed to killing nine black parishioners at an historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, was indicted Wednesday on 33 federal counts, including hate crime charges, according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Dylann Roof, 21, was indicted earlier this month on similar charges in the state but faced federal hate crimes and firearms charges because he targeted his victims because "of their race and in order to interfere with their exercise of their religion", Lynch said at a press conference announcing the new indictment.
“Roof conceived his goal of increasing racial tensions and seeking retribution for perceived wrongs that he believed African-Americans have committed against white people,” Lynch said. “To carry out these twin goals of fanning racial flames and exacting revenge, Roof further decided to seek out and murder African-Americans because of their race.”
Roof could face life in prison or the death penalty, according to Lynch, who said a decsion on the death penalty had not yet been reached.
Previously, Lynch had called the murders at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June an “egregious crime”.
“Acts like this one have no place in our country and no place in a civilized society,” she said.
