The trial for Dylann Roof started last week. On Monday, law enforcement officials testified that Roof had a handwritten list of other black churches inside his car. Brittany Burke, who is a former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent was the one who testified recounting what she found on Roof's car when she processed it after the shooting.
Aside from the list of black churches in South Carolina, police also found ammunition and an American flag that had been burned.
Also heard in the trial session on Monday was the testimony of Ronald Thrailkill, who was the one who sold Dylann Roof the gun he used to shoot the parishioners on June 17, 2015.
Roof was able to buy the gun two months before the shooting happened. Thrailkill said that Roof had filled out all the needed paperwork, including a questionnaire on background information on mental health. Thrailkill said that he sold the gun to Roof after three business days as there was no response from the national instant criminal check to cancel the transaction.
Apparently, two months before his gun purchase, Roof was arrested for drugs so he should have never been able to buy a gun, but an error from a jail clerk entering the wrong information resulted in the purchase. Now, the families of the victims are also suing the FBI for negligence which resulted in the sale.
On Monday, CNN reports that the jury heard the manifesto that Roof wrote before the shooting. An FBI agent read the words aloud, which included Dylann's confession that it was the case of Trayvon Martin that truly shook him up. He claimed that George Zimmerman, who shot Martin, was doing the right thing.
Some of the words that he wrote included the following statements:
"Negroes have lower IQs, lower impulse control, and higher testosterone levels in generals. These three things alone are a recipe for violent behavior."
"I hate the sight of the American flag. Modern American patriotism is an absolute joke. People pretending like they have something to be proud while White people are being murdered daily in the streets."
His video confession played last week during the trial, showed Roof laughing after he said: "I went to that church in Charleston and I did it." Roof was expecting to be killed as he was expecting the police to arrive.
Dylann Roof has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, which number to around 33 and includes violating the Hate Crime Act, and nine counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relations to a crime of violence.
If found guilty, Dylann Roof could face the death penalty.
