Justice Department To Seek Death Penalty For S.C. Church Shooting Suspect

Pallbearers release doves over the coffin of Ethel Lance, one of the nine people killed in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., during her funeral on June 25, 2015.

David Goldman/AP

The Justice Department says it will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof, accused of fatally shooting nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015.

"The nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm compelled this decision," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

The federal hate-crime charges against Roof "center on both the victims' race and their identity as churchgoers who were attempting to follow their religious beliefs when Roof attacked," as The Two-Way reported last summer. At the time, Lynch called hate crimes "the original domestic terrorism." Roof also faces federal weapons charges.

"The Justice Department says he selected the [Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church] and his victims to win notoriety and to try to ignite a race war," NPR's Carrie Johnson reports. "Roof has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges."

Roof's lawyer David Bruck declined to comment on Tuesday's decision in an email to Carrie.

There is a separate case against Roof filed by authorities in South Carolina. Prosecutors in that case are also seeking the death penalty, as we reported in September.

Survivors of the attack and family members of the deceased victims "had differing views on whether Roof should face execution," the Charleston Post and Courier says. An attorney for family members of three of the victims told the paper on Tuesday:

"The families will support this decision. Really, I think the families have mixed emotions about the death penalty. But if it's ever going to be given, this case certainly calls for it."

Roof is scheduled to be tried in January in the state case. It's unclear at this point when the federal trial will take place.