Dylann Roof, the 22-year-old man accused of the racially motivated massacre at a church is Charleston, was attacked. Around 8 a.m. on Thursday, Roof was getting ready for his morning shower when he got his ass beat by another inmate.
An inmate “punched (Roof) a number of times and assaulted him quickly” before a jail guard pulled the two apart, said Sheriff Al Cannon. Inmate Dwayne Stafford ran from his cell and down stairs to attack Roof inside the shower of the Charleston County Detention Center. Dylann is under protective custody, but the guard went to fetch toilet paper for another inmate, leaving Roof vulnerable. Roof was bruised on his face and back but not seriously injured and returned to his cell after medical staffers examined him.
Roof and his lawyer are not pressing charges against Stafford. “They have no desire to pursue charges,” Cannon said.
Stafford was booked into the jail in January 2015 on strong-armed robbery and first-degree assault charges.
Roof faces 33 charges, including hate crimes, for the slaughter of nine black people at the Emanuel AME Church. Roof pretended to be interested in finding religion and attended a bible study at Mother Emanuel on June 17, 2015, before going on a shooting rampage.
Dylann allegedly confessed to the gruesome shooting with an intent to start a race war. That correlates with testimony from one of Roof’s friends who said Dylann was drunk one night and revealed he had an unspecified six-month plan “to do something crazy” in order “to start a race war.”
On Monday, Dylann’s lawyers filed a legal challenge to the U.S. death penalty, saying it was “arbitrary and cruel” and therefore unconstitutional.
Roof’s federal death penalty trial is scheduled to begin November 7. Jury selection in his state trial begins in January.
No amount of punches will equal the deserved retribution for the nine lives lost.
[NYDN]