Crime & Safety
FBI: Dylann Roof Should Not Have Been Able To Buy Gun
Background check error allowed charged Charleston shooter to purchase 45-caliber handgun.
The FBI on Friday said that accused Charleston shooter Dylann Roof should not have been able to purchase the gun he allegedly used to kill nine in the massacre, according to multiple reports.
Roof purchased the 45-caliber handgun on April 11 at Shooter’s Choice in West Columbia, South Carolina.
He had been arrested in March on felony drug charges, but the arrest was mistakenly listed under the Lexington County Sherrif’s office and not Columbia State Police.
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USA Today explains what happened next:
The Columbia police report included information that Roof admitted to drug possession, which would have triggered a denial by the FBI NICS review process. That information was never seen by the reviewer because the FBI’s database did not include Columbia police contacts in its check of Lexington County, where Roof had been held after the arrest.
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“We are all sick this happened,” FBI director James B. Comey said. “We wish we could turn back time.”
Roof was formally indicted earlier this week on nine charges of murder and three of attempted murder.
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