Dylann Roof Trial Update: Emanuel AME Church Wasn't The Only Black House Of Worship Roof Wanted To Attack

Investigators found a handwritten list containing the names and addresses of six black Churches in Charleston, South Carolina, in Dylann Roof’s car. Roof, who was accused of killing nine black parishioners at a church in order to ignite a race war, professed in his taped confession that he had conducted research on the ratio of black to white residents of several South Carolina communities before electing to open fire on the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015.

A loaded pistol, extra ammunition, Confederate flags and a burnt American flag were also found in Roof’s black Hyundai following the then 21-year-old’s capture and arrest in North Carolina, former State Law Enforcement Division crime scene investigator Brittany Burke testified Monday, according to local reports Monday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVAA2C2P_o

Roof faces 33 charges, including hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of religious freedom, which may lead to the death penalty. Jurors were shown footage of the self-proclaimed white supremacist laughing Friday as he told investigators that he had shot the parishioners who had welcomed him into their Bible study group with a Glock .45-caliber pistol. Roof also told investigators he hadn't anticipated still being alive for the trial because he expected police to come to the church and kill him immodestly following the shooting.

Roof’s defense attorney David Bruck submitted papers to U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel Monday in an attempt to provoke a mistrial by arguing that the prosecutor’s first witness, Felicia Sanders, who survived the shooting, wrongly influenced other witnesses in the courtroom when she suggested Roof should receive the death penalty Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported Monday. Sanders attempted to put into words for the jurors the whirlwind of emotions experienced inside the church while Roof fired 77 shots at the group of mostly middle-aged and older women during closing prayer.

Gergel had previously denied a motion to take Sander’s comments that Roof belonged in “the pit of hell” off of court records already.