A court has formally charged a young man with the deaths of nine people in a church in the US.
Judge James Gosnell stated that the murder of nine people is non-bailable; Dylann Roof was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm, for which bail would be $1 million; the governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, advocated for the death penalty for the perpetrator of the massacre.
Gislene Nogueira - Correspondent for Agência Brasil/EBC
Young Dylann Roof participated today (19) in a video conference with a judge in a court in the United States. The resource was used so that he did not have to leave the jail where he has been since he was arrested yesterday (18), in Charleston, South Carolina.
The man accused of killing nine people in a historic church belonging to a Black American congregation gave only short answers to Magistrate James Gosnell. Dylann Roof confirmed his name, address, and that he was unemployed. He listened, head bowed, to relatives of victims who were allowed to speak at the hearing.
A relative of Ethel Lance, identified as one of the people who died in the attack, told the shooter: “You hurt a lot of people, but I forgive you.”
Judge James Gosnell stated that the murder of nine people is a non-bailable offense. Dylann Roof was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm, for which bail would be $1 million. The American press reported that the young man confessed to the crime in jail and that the attack was intended to start a race war.
The governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, advocated for the death penalty for the perpetrator of the massacre.