While there is a tug-of-words going on between calling Charleston, South Carolina shooter Dylann Roof “racist” or “mentally ill,” an African-American friend of his has more eyebrow-raising words to share. Roof allegedly intended to shoot at a college, not a church.
“He just said that he was going to hurt a bunch of people at the University of Charleston,” said Roof’s friend, Christon Scriven, to Associated Press. “And he stopped talking about it.”
While it’s not clear if Scriven really meant the College of Charleston in South Carolina or the University of Charleston in West Virginia, he went on to state that his opinions about Roof haven’t changed and he still “loves him as a friend.”
Roof has been arrested and accused of killing nine people last Wednesday during a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. The victims’ ages ranged from 26 to 87.
According to an Associated Press report, Scriven thought the college comments a week before the shooting were just “drunken bluster.” However, Scriven and another friend, Joey Meek, removed the .45-caliber gun from Roof’s car and hid it in an air-conditioning vent of a mobile home until they all sobered up.