"The uncle said Roof's father had recently given him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present..."

[Hissyspit]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/dylann-roofs-attorney

Here's What We Know About the People Who Lost Their Lives in Charleston

Mathews became Roof's lawyer after Roof was arrested in March at the Columbiana Centre, a mall in Columbia, and charged with possession of suboxone, a narcotic painkiller. Mathews says Roof had gone into some stores and "asked people some questions, which made some people uncomfortable," including what time the stores closed. Someone at one of the stores contacted the authorities. Roof was stopped and searched, according to Mathews, and the police found he was carrying suboxone and arrested him. Roof was also given a trespassing warning, which he violated a couple of weeks later, Mathews notes, and Roof was subsequently cited for trespassing.

Here's what else we know about Roof:

- Roof, 21, was arrested midday Thursday in Shelby, North Carolina, about a three and a half-hour drive from the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The shooting of nine black churchgoers happened at about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
- Charleston police chief Greg Mullen said he believed the shooting to be a "hate crime."
- Roof's uncle told Reuters that Roof was introverted and soft-spoken.
- The uncle also said Roof's father had recently given him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present. "I don't have any words for it. Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming," he said.
- Roof is from Lexington, South Carolina, and attended White Knoll High School, which a high school friend said had a mix of black and white students.
- An ornamental license plate on the front of Roof's car had a Confederate flag on it.
- Roof's roommate told ABC News that Roof was "bit into segregation and other stuff," and "said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself."

MORE AT LINK

[npk]

1. Yep that's our gun culture. Just like handing someone soda.

Here young man have a gun. And yet we allow powerful lobbyist like the NRA to shutdown every attempt we make to stop this nonsense. How much longer folks?

[valerief]

3. Just another responsible gun owner in Ammomerica. nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. The family that slays together, stays together.

[villager]

4. But of course he had.

The shock would be if this, or something similar, hadn't happened.

[eissa]

5. To be fair

What else does one give their drug-addicted son for their birthday?

[Blue_Tires]

6. ugh...Just like Lanza...

[Doctor_J]

7. given that the son was known to be a violent, white supremacist drug user, dad

should face some charges

[KT2000]

8. especially since he already

exhibited weird behavior at the mall. Dad was so concerned he gave him a gun for his birthday.