The Charleston shooter, Dylann Storm Roof, is believed to have had racial motivations when he shot and killed nine people at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, reported The Huffington Post.
Photos of Roof show him wearing a jacket with patches now associated with white supremacist movements.
One patch was of the apartheid-era South African flag which dates back to 1928. The flag was taken down in South Africa after the apartheid dissolved in 1994. The Anti-Defamation League says the flag has since become an international symbol of white supremacy.
That’s the flag of apartheid-era South Africa on Dylann Roof’s jacket pic.twitter.com/ex4cG15sVA
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015
The second patch was the flag of the unofficial state of Rhodesia from 1968 to 1979. A civil war erupted between the British colony of South Rhodesia and a white minority group. The civil war ended in 1979 and the flag became synonymous with white supremacy.
Second flag on Dylann Roof’s jacket appears to be that of white-rule Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe pic.twitter.com/js2IpiP8ZN
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015
There were also photos of Roof standing in front of his car. His car had a Confederate States of America vanity plate on the front bumper. A childhood friend of Roof noted that his car has a “very distinctive license plate,” but provided no further details.
Was Roof mentally ill? Probably not. His actions were a calculated hate crime. He wanted to wage war against black people, and like others who are similar, he thinks white people are under attack. They’re not.
