Tag: SC

Hate, Hate crime, Racial Slurs, Racial tension, racial unrest, Racially motivated, Racist, Violence

Dylan Roof told her……”He Spared her life, so she could tell the story”

The ReadyWriter

Felicia Sanders (R) and Polly Sheppard (L), two of the three survivors of the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, walk off the stage on the third evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 27, 2016
Felicia Sanders (R) and Polly Sheppard (L), two of the three survivors of the Mother Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, walk off the stage on the third evening session of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia July 27, 2016

A survivor of last year’s massacre of nine African American churchgoers in Charleston, SC recalled in federal court today how gunman, Dylann Roof, spared her life, telling her he needed her “to tell the story.”

Polly Sheppard (pictured above left), told a jury, she dove under a table as shots rang out at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015 at the end of a Bible study session.

When Sheppard opened her eyes, Roof’s boots were in her line of sight, she told the jury who’s hearing the federal death penalty case in South Carolina, what Roof said to her.

“Did I shoot you yet?” Roof asked, according to Sheppard.

“No,” she replied.

“I’m not going to. I need you to tell the story,” Roof said.

Roof was given a Bible and pamphlet when he entered the church and joined the group, Sheppard recalled.

At the end of the session about 50 minutes later, the group stood to pray, closing their eyes.

That was when gunshots rang out.

Sheppard said she mistook them for the sparking of old electrical wiring until her friend Felicia Sanders started screaming.

“Oh, he’s shooting everybody, Miss Polly,” Sheppard recalled Sanders saying.

Sheppard told the court how Roof executed 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, Felicia Sanders’s son.

“Why are you doing this? We mean you no harm,” said a wounded Tywanza Sanders, who propped himself up on his elbows to address the attacker before being shot dead.

“I have to. I have to. You’re raping our women and taking over the nation,” Roof said, according to Sheppard’s account.

Closing arguments are set for tomorrow, with the jury expected to begin deliberations. Should he be found guilty, Roof has elected to represent himself during the sentencing phase of the trial. Either way, he faces the death penalty.

Hate, Hate crime, Racial tension, Racially motivated, Racism in America, Racist

Dylan Roof’s mother suffers heart attack as prosecutors detail attack plans

The ReadyWriter

dylann-roof-2016-08-04t162903zDylan Roof’s mother suffered a heart attack after prosecutors described how her son planned a cold and calculated killing of nine black church members in a racially motivated attack, Roof’s attorney said in court documents Thursday. 

Roof’s mother collapsed and said “I’m sorry” several times on Wednesday as family members and court security came to help her during the opening of her son’s federal death penalty trial. 

charleston_9Roof’s attorney mentioned the heart attack in court documents asking for a mistrial, because a survivor’s testimony was so emotional that “spectators and even court personnel – including members of the prosecution and defense – were crying with her.”

Felicia Sanders the lone survivor of  this horrific attack told jurors about the horror of seeing her son and her aunt shot to death and sheltering with her granddaughter beneath a table. At one point, she looked across the courtroom toward Roof and called him “evil, evil, evil.” 

“There’s no place on Earth for him other than the pit of hell.” Sanders concluded.

Computer images of the crime scene were shown to the jury. The pictures showed the victims lying in pools of blood on the beige tile floor of the fellowship hall at Emanuel AME Church. Most were clustered around circular tables where they had been holding a Bible study. 

The defense is trying to save Roof from getting a sentence of “death” and has said Roof is willing to plead guilty if the death penalty is taken off the table. They have made a similar offer in state court where Roof is charged with nine counts of murder and faces another death penalty trial next year.