Church shooter laughed during FBI confession

Roof tape shown during death penalty trial in Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann Roof wanted the world to know he hated black people and thought they were criminals. He thought about attacking drug dealers, but they might shoot back. So, he told the FBI, he picked a historic black church in Charleston he had learned about online.

In a videotaped confession shown Friday during his death penalty trial, Roof laughed several times and made exaggerated gun motions as he recounted the massacre. He explained that he wanted to leave at least one person alive to tell what happened and complained that his victims “complicated things” when they hid under tables.

Forty-five minutes into the interview, an FBI agent decided to tell him nine people died in the June 17, 2015, shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“There wasn’t even that many people in there,” Roof said incredulously. “Are you lying to me?”

Roof’s lawyers have conceded that he carried out the attack and are concentrating on convincing jurors to spare his life in the second phase of the trial.

His confession came about 17 hours after the shooting. FBI agents drove to Shelby, North Carolina, where he was arrested with the gun used in the shooting in the backseat of his car. The plane that would take him back to Charleston was not going to arrive for a few hours. So FBI agent Michael Stansbury got permission to take a chance and interview him immediately.