The man who killed nine people in a historically black church in South Carolina on June 17 reportedly told his friend he was going to shoot up a college a week prior to the massacre.
Dylann Roof, 21, is accused of walking into the church and voicing racist sentiments to the African-American people inside before opening fire. He has since admitted his crime and said it was racially motivated.
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Now Roof’s friend, 22-year-old Christon Scriven, who describes himself as one of Roof’s drinking buddies, says Roof told him his target was originally the College of Charleston. Scriven says he didn’t take his friend’s threat seriously at the time because they had been drinking but admits he hid Roof’s gun that night as a precaution, according to nzherald.com.
“I don’t think the church was his primary target because he told us he was going for the school,” Scriven told the Associated Press June 19. “But I think he couldn’t get into the school because of the security … so I think he just settled for the church.”
Scriven’s story is similar to other members of Roof’s inner circle who found him troubled and confused. Some of Roof’s friends were black.
Roof used birthday money to buy the .45-caliber Glock handgun that he used to kill the members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Although the College of Charleston ended up not being attacked, its librarian, Cynthia Hurd, was one of the victims in last week’s shooting.
