Unsealed records shed light on S.C. church killer’s mental state

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Documents unsealed in federal court reveal new details about the mental health of convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof, including a psychiatrist’s finding that his disorders make it hard for him to focus, interact with others or express emotion.

Roof’s psychiatric records remain sealed, as do the transcripts from two competency hearings.

But other information unsealed this week describes Roof ’s mental state, a topic the 22-year-old defendant tried to keep out of his sentencing after insisting on representing himself. Quoting from a psychiatrist’s testimony during one of those hearings, his lawyers wrote “the defendant suffers from ‘Social Anxiety Disorder, a Mixed Substance Abuse Disorder, a Schizoid Personality Disorder, depression by history, and a possible Autistic Spectrum Disorder.“’

Some of the other trademarks of those disorders, according to the filings, are anxiety about unknown outcomes, a tendency to become overwhelmed and trouble retaining information. Roof’s “high IQ,” his attorneys wrote, is “compromised by a significant discrepancy between his ability to comprehend and to process information and a poor working memory.”

Although Roof’s mental health wasn’t discussed much in open court, it played a large role in his trial for shooting nine people as they prayed inside Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church in June 2015. The jury convicted Roof in December on 33 federal charges including hate crimes, and sentenced him to death last month.

Roof’s legal advisers repeatedly expressed frustration that he wouldn’t let them introduce mental health evidence that could have possibly spared his life.