The 21-year-old admitted to Charleston police and the FBI that he was behind the massacre, law enforcement officials said on Friday. He was unrepentant as he spoke with investigators and told them he wanted everyone to know what he had done, officials told the Washington Post.
He also revealed that he 'almost didn't go through with it because everyone was so nice to him', sources told NBC News, but he ultimately decided that he had to 'go through with his mission'.
His roommate has since revealed that Roof, who is white, had been planning the attack for six months, and had wanted to start a 'civil war' before killing himself. Another friend has said that Roof complained that black people are 'taking over the world' and said someone to do something about it for the sake of 'the white race'.
On Thursday, following an overnight manhunt, Roof was arrested in Shelby, North Carolina after a tip from a member of the public and he was extradited back to South Carolina last night.
He was seen in a jumpsuit, chains, handcuffs and a bullet-proof vest as he was chaperoned by dozens of armed police officers on to an airplane at Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport bound for his home state.
He is now on suicide watch in jail, as per protocol, Charleston County Sheriff's office spokesman Major Eric Watson told ABC News. He is being housed separately from the rest of the inmates for his own safety and is in a cell next to Michael Slager, the white cop accused of gunning down unarmed black man Walter Scott, according to Live5.
He has been charged with nine counts of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, according to Charleston police. A bail hearing has been set for 2pm today, where he will be represented by a public defender.
On Friday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told the Today show that 'we will absolutely will want him to have the death penalty'. His uncle added to ABC News that, if he does get the death penalty, he 'will push the button myself'.
'I'll be the one to push the button. If he's found guilty, I'll be the one to push the button myself,' Carson Cowles said. 'If what I am hearing is true, he needs to pay for it.'
On Wednesday, Roof allegedly entered the church and joined the bible study group for as long as an hour before suddenly opening fire on the group.
One survivor recounted how he reloaded his gun five times as he picked off his victims - killing six women and three men, including the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who is also a South Carolina state senator. He killed them with a gun he'd bought himself, he told cops.
Pinckney's cousin told NBC News that one of the survivors told her they had urged Roof to stop.
'He just said: "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go",' Sylvia Johnson said.
Roof spared one woman so she could 'tell the world what happened', eye witnesses recounted. The gunman then fled.
Police launched a massive manhunt for Roof and released surveillance images showing him and his car, warning the public that he was dangerous. He was eventually caught on Thursday morning after a woman recognized his car and haircut and called her boss, who called 911.
His roommate told ABC News that Roof had been 'planning something like that for six months'.
'He was big into segregation and other stuff,' the roommate, Dalton Tyler, said. 'He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself.'
Another friend, Joseph Meek Jr., said he had reconnected with Roof just a few weeks ago after falling out of touch for years.
He said that they never talked about race years ago when they were friends, but recently made remarks out of the blue about the killing of unarmed black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida and the riots in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, Meek said.
'He said blacks were taking over the world. Someone needed to do something about it for the white race,' Meek said, adding that the friends were getting drunk on vodka. 'He said he wanted segregation between whites and blacks. I said, 'That's not the way it should be.' But he kept talking about it.'
In a photograph of Roof on Facebook, he is seen glaring at the camera while displaying the flag of apartheid-era South Africa on his jacket. He is also wearing another flag depicting that of white-rule Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe.
He was big into segregation. He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that and then kill himself
Dylann Roof's roommate, Dalton Tyler
As the search was underway, Roof's uncle, Carson Cowles, said the family was shocked by the killings at the hands of his 'quiet, soft spoken' nephew.
'Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming,' Cowles said. 'I said, if it is him, and when they catch him, he's got to pay for this.'
He said he had told his sister, Roof's mother, several years ago that Roof was too introverted and worried he was cooped up in his room too much.
'I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn't have a job, a driver's license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time,' Cowles said.
A high school classmate of Roof's, John Mullins, told The Daily Beast that the accused white supremacist killer was 'kind of wild' and a big time prescription drug abuser.
'He used drugs heavily a lot,' Mullins said. 'It obviously harder than marijuana. He was like a pill popper, from what I understood. Like Xanax, and stuff like that.'
Court records reveal that a February drug charge cited Roof's possession of methamphetamine, cocaine and LSD, RadarOnline reports.
Of the shooting, Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen said: 'We believe this is a hate crime - that is how we are investigating it.'
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