Charleston killer ‘illegally’ bought gun despite criminal record: FBI
FBI Director James Comey says a white gunman who killed nine black worshipers in a US church last month should never have been able to buy a gun due to his criminal record.
Dylann Roof, 21, shot dead the African-American people in Charleston, South Carolina by the .45-caliber handgun with money given to him for his birthday.
The FBI head said Roof purchased the weapon despite a criminal record that included a drug possession charge.
“We are all sick this happened,” he said. “We wish we could turn back time.”
Comey said the FBI’s background check system should have flagged the young man in April when he went to a gun shop in West Columbia to buy the firearm.
However, Roof was able to buy the gun because of a series of errors in the screening system for gun purchases and he was not considered an "unlawful user" ineligible to purchase the gun.
“This case rips all of our hearts out, but the thought that an error on our part is connected to a gun this person used to slaughter these people is very painful to us,” Comey said.
Roof had been arrested for possessing narcotics in February.
The slaughter of black people in Charleston has resumed the debate about racism and gun violence in the United States amid harsh criticism against US police forces for fatally killing African-Americans.
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