Dylann Roof Said To Have Attempted Suicide After Shooting
On Wednesday night, after killing nine people in the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, Dylann Roof allegedly put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The gun, however, was empty.
Kevin Singleton, the son of 59-year-old Myra Thompson, relayed this account to the Los Angeles Times. Singleton was told about Roof’s suicide attempt by one of the two adult survivors, 69-year-old Polly Sheppard.
“He pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but it went click,” Singleton said. “His plan was never to leave that church.”
A woman who answered the telephone at Sheppard’s house Saturday refused to comment.
Singleton said that it appeared Roof’s original intent was to kill Emanuel’s well-known minister, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was the first one shot.
But when the Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74 and retired, grappled with Roof, he unloaded on Simmons and the others who died, Singleton said.
A website registered under Roof’s name, Lastrhodesian.com, discovered yesterday, is no longer online.
Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.
