Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man accused of fatally shooting nine African-American worshippers last month in Charleston, South Carolina, (click here if you missed it), will be indicted on a federal hate crime charge on Wednesday, an official told the Associated Press.
Roof already faces nine state murder charges for each victim he allegedly killed, as well as three attempted murder counts for the individuals who survived the shooting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17.
Local and city officials, including the mayor, recognized the hateful nature of the attack. But the incident couldn’t be investigated as a hate crime in South Carolina, one of five states that lacks such a law.
Instead, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice began investigating the incident as a hate crime on the federal level. The FBI defines a hate crime as “a traditional offense like murder, arson or vandalism with an added element of bias.”
Culled from Raw Story
