S. Carolina man wanted to imitate Roof, officials say
Federal officials said that they arrested a South Carolina man this week after he bought a handgun from an undercover agent and told the agent that he wanted to commit an attack inspired by Dylann Roof, the avowed white supremacist who killed nine black churchgoers in June 2015.
The suspect, Benjamin T.S. McDowell, was arrested Wednesday in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. He is in federal custody pending a detention hearing next week.
In an affidavit, Grant Lowe, a special agent with the FBI, described McDowell as a felon who, according to the police in Horry County, had developed ties to white supremacist groups.
The document says that in recent weeks, McDowell wrote on Facebook about what appeared to be his frustration with white supremacists for not taking more actions like those of Roof, who was convicted in the attack in Charleston, S.C., and sentenced last month to death.
In December, the affidavit said, McDowell sent the message, “I love love to act what u think,” and included a link to the website for Temple Emanu-El, a conservative synagogue in Myrtle Beach. It was not clear whom McDowell was communicating with.
In January, McDowell suggested on Facebook that Roof had done what “tattoos wearing” individuals — presumably a reference to white supremacists — are “supposed to be doing,” the document said.
The affidavit said McDowell wrote on Facebook Messenger that he was looking for an “iron,” which can mean a gun, and about a week later he met an undercover agent. In their conversations, the affidavit said, McDowell “indicated he sought a way to conduct an attack on nonwhites without getting caught” and said he wanted to do something on a large scale and write on a building, “In the spirit of Dylann Roof.”
The affidavit said McDowell wanted to buy a .40-caliber Glock handgun and hollow-point ammunition. The undercover agent arranged to meet with McDowell, who agreed to pay $109 for the gun and ammunition. He was arrested soon afterward.
Joann Clewis, who picked up the phone at the residence in Conway, S.C., identified as the house of McDowell’s mother in the affidavit, said she was McDowell’s mother.
“I knew he had a real bad anger problem, but I had never thought that it had got this far because he stayed to his self and he didn’t talk a whole lot,” Clewis said.
Clewis said her son was 29, did not work and did not like crowds. She declined to say why he had previously been jailed. She said he had called her after he was arrested Wednesday.
“He said, ‘Mama, I should have listened to my family,’” Clewis said. “He said, ‘Mama, I’ve been with the wrong crowd.’ ”