Charleston shooting suspect’s website reportedly emerges
The website for the alleged gunman in the Charleston, S.C., mass shooting was discovered Saturday, multiple reports say.
“The Last Rhodesian” depicts photos of Dylann Storm Roof, 21, the man accused of attacking Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and murdering nine people.
{mosads}The domain for the website was also registered last February to “Dylann Roof,” The New York Times reported Saturday.
The Daily Beast also reported that photos of Roof on the website were taken in spring, according to metadata.
The site features a document describing the evolution of its author’s racist worldview.
It is not clear who is responsible for either the photos or the article, titled “An Explanation.”
“I chose Charleston because it is [the] most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country,” the author says. It’s not made clear what would occur at the location chosen.
“We have no skinheads, no KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the Internet,” the passage continues. “Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”
The author cites media coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting in 2012 as the inspiration behind his dislike of blacks.
In that incident, Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, an armed neighborhood watchman.
“The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case,” the manifesto reads.
“I was in disbelief,” it says. “At this moment I realized something was very wrong.”
“How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?” the author asked, citing their personal research on race-related crime.
The author says they researched black-on-white crime statistics after the Martin shooting by referencing the Council of Conservative Citizens.
The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies that organization as a hate group, Buzzfeed reported.
The author notes a sense of urgency late in the piece, suggesting it had to be completed by a deadline.
“Unfortunately, at the time of writing I am in a great hurry and some of my best thoughts, actually many of them, have been to be lost out and left forever,” the manifesto says.
“But I believe enough great White minds are out there already. Please forgive any typos, I didn’t have time to check it.”
The author’s manifesto also expresses hatred for various racial minorities, particularly blacks.
“N—-rs are stupid and violent,” it says. “Black people view everything through a racial lense [sic].”
“Black people are racially aware almost from birth, but White people on average don’t think about race in their daily lives,” they add. “And this is our problem — we need to and have to.”
Claims of past white oppression towards blacks, they add, is nothing but “historical lies, exaggerations and myths.”
The author also attacks Hispanic and Jewish people in his writing.
“In my opinion, the issue with Jews is not their blood, but their identity,” it reads. “I think that if we could somehow destroy the Jewish identity, then they wouldn’t cause much of a problem. Just like n—-rs, Jews are always thinking about the fact that they are Jewish.”
“Hispanics are obviously a huge problem for Americans,” the author writes. “They have respect for White beauty, and a good portion of Hispanics are White. But they are still our enemies.”
The author also takes issue with American patriotism, calling it an “absolute joke.”
“I hate the sight of the American flag,” a passage says. “People pretending like they have something to be proud while White people are being murdered daily in the streets.”
The Daily Mail published some of the pictures, available on “The Last Rhodesian” website as a downloadable package.
They show Roof, always alone, engaged in activities with racial or violent undertones.
In one, he points a gun at the camera, apparently taken in a bedroom.
In another, he is shown standing outside the Museum and Library of Confederate History in Greenville, S.C.
A third shows him sitting between two wax historical figures, apparently depicting African-American slaves.
Two more find Roof seemingly abusing the American flag – he stands atop it in one photograph, and burns it in another.
BuzzFeed reported Saturday that the photos reference the White Supremacist movement and neo-Nazism.
The number 14, it said, references a 14-word slogan frequently used by white-power supporters – “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”
The numeral 88, it said, refers to “HH,” or “Heil Hitler,” citing Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler. “H” is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
The final symbol, it added, is an Odal rune, an insignia used by neo-Nazis and white supremacist organizations in South Africa.
“The Last Rhodesian” references the former African state of Rhodesia, which was ruled by whites through the system of apartheid, the Daily Mail reported.
It added that the site is registered through a privacy protection company in Queensland, Australia, tasked with masking the identity of its manager.
The Daily Beast reported the FBI is aware of the website’s existence.
The agency has no comment on the page at this time, it added.
Roof received a $1 million bond levied against him on Friday during an emotional courtroom hearing in Charleston, S.C.
Family members of the victims forgave the suspected killer for the crimes he is accused of during emotional personal testimonies.
Roof was arrested Thursday in Shelby, N.C., following a 14-hour manhunt.
He allegedly uttered racial epithets before opening fire on congregants at Emanuel AME Church on Wednesday evening.
Rev. Clement Pinckney, the church’s pastor and a South Carolina state senator, was one of the lives lost in the attack.
– Updated at 1:50 p.m.
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