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Dylann Roof, Charleston Shooting Suspect, Is Indicted on Federal Hate Crime Charges

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Attorney General On Hate Crime Charges

Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney general, announced on Wednesday that Dylann Roof will face federal hate crime charges in the shooting deaths of nine Charleston church members.

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Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney general, announced on Wednesday that Dylann Roof will face federal hate crime charges in the shooting deaths of nine Charleston church members.CreditCredit...Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The gunman who killed nine people at a South Carolina church in June plotted his attack for months, choosing his target because it was a nationally known historically black church, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said on Wednesday as she announced federal hate crime charges against him.

The man charged in the case, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, is also accused of killing people while obstructing religious freedom, a charge that carries a possible death sentence, though Ms. Lynch said the Justice Department had not decided whether to seek it.

“He was looking for the type of church and the type of parishioners whose death would in fact draw great notoriety for his racist views,” Ms. Lynch said.

Authorities have linked Mr. Roof to a racist Internet manifesto and said he was in contact with white supremacist groups before his attack on the well-known Emanuel A.M.E. Church, which has hosted many major civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mr. Roof already faces nine counts of murder in state court and could face the death penalty there. But Justice Department and F.B.I. officials have said the Charleston shooting was so horrific and racially motivated that the federal government must address it.

South Carolina does not have a hate crime law, and federal officials have said they believe that a murder case alone would leave the racial component of the crime unaddressed.

“The parishioners had Bibles,” Ms. Lynch said. “Dylann Roof has his .45-caliber Glock pistol and eight magazines loaded with hollow-point bullets.”

Ms. Lynch did not say whether prosecutors would try to bring the federal case to trial before the state trial, or whether they would wait to see the result of the local case. The state prosecutor’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment.

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Dylann Roof, center, at a court hearing in Charleston, S.C., last week.Credit...Pool photo by Grace Beahm

Ms. Lynch said Mr. Roof hoped the attack would “fan racial flames” and exact revenge for what he believed were wrongs that African-Americans committed against white people. Before the shooting, he was photographed holding a Confederate battle flag and a handgun.

“I have no choice,” the manifesto reads. “I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the Internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

Survivors said that Mr. Roof arrived at the church as worshipers gathered for a Wednesday night Bible study group, and sat with them for a while before he started shooting.

“You are raping our women and taking over our country,” Mr. Roof said to the victims, all of them black, before killing them, witnesses told the police.

While the shooting did bring new national attention to racial tensions, it did not have the effect that prosecutors say Mr. Roof wanted. Quite the opposite. The shooting renewed the national debate over the symbolism of the Confederate flag. South Carolina lawmakers responded by removing the flag from the State House grounds.

There are mixed views inside the Justice Department about whether prosecutors should try to bring the federal case before Mr. Roof stands trial in South Carolina.

Some said they believed it would be better to defer to local prosecutors, both because they have already started a case that they see as very strong, and because it avoids the lengthy federal process required when seeking the death penalty. But many others say the shooting is precisely the kind of crime Congress intended the federal government to prosecute when it enacted hate crime laws.

Mr. Roof’s arrest shortly after the shooting led to an emotional court appearance in which the family members of victims spoke to him through a closed-circuit television feed.

Even as they expressed anger and sadness, many said their faith led them to forgive him.

“How many of us would be able to find such forgiveness in our hearts?” Ms. Lynch said.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: Nine Killings in Charleston Bring Charges of Hate Crime. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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