Suspect In Charleston Church Shooting Confesses To Killings: Report

The Facebook profile photo of suspect Dylann Roof.

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The suspect in the shooting deaths of nine people at an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., has confessed to the crimes, saying he wanted to start a race war, according to a media report.

Two law enforcement officials who spoke to CNN said Dylann Storm Roof, 21, of Columbia, S.C. has confessed, adding that the suspect bought the .45-caliber handgun used in the shooting at a Charleston gun store last April, according to the two officials.

Roof also made incriminating statements indicating he was involved in the shooting deaths, CBS News reported.

A senior law enforcement official also told CNN that Roof’s father bought him a Glock firearm for his birthday.

Roof was arrested near Shelby, N.C., on Thursday, some 250 miles from the church where authorities say he sat through a prayer meeting before opening fire and killing nine church goers.

>>Related story: Suspect In Charleston Church Shooting Arrested: F.B.I.

The shooting occurred at about 9 p.m. Wednesday during a prayer meeting inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston.

Roof’s Facebook page identifies him as a resident of Columbia, S.C. and a one-time student at White Knoll High School. In his Facebook profile photo, Roof is wearing a jacket bearing patches of the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia.

Among the dead is the church’s pastor, Clementa Pinckney, according to The Associated Press. He was also a state senator.

The suspect attended the meeting at the church and stayed for nearly an hour before firing, according to the AP report, which added his victims include six females and three males. Three people at the prayer meeting survived.

In an interview with NBC News, Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of the Rev. Pinckney’s, said she had spoken to one of the survivors who told her that before the shooting Roof had said, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as “Mother Emanuel,” is one of the oldest African-American churches in the country formed by African-Americans in 1816.

The earliest independent African American denomination – the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) – was officially founded in Philadelphia in 1816 and was established in Charleston the same year, according to a history published by the College of Charleston. Its founder Richard Allen, was born a slave in 1760.

The church had been destroyed twice: once burned to the ground and again when an earthquake hit.

Reuters reported that Roof had been arrested twice, for trespassing and for a drug offense, but according to The New York Times, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Columbia Division, Dave Thomas, said Roof had not been on the agency’s radar.

Photos: Surveillance photos of the suspect, courtesy of the Charleston Police Department.