iStock/Thinkstock(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — As the federal death penalty trial got underway this morning for 22-year-old Dylann Roof, who authorities say is responsible for killing nine people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in June 2015, the prosecution said in its opening statements that Roof stood over his victims, shooting them over and over again, according to ABC television affiliate WCIV in Charleston.

As the victims ran for cover, one parishioner tried to protect Rev. Clementa Pinckney — a church pastor and a member of the South Carolina Senate — said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson, but Roof continued to shoot, killing Pinckney, WCIV reported.

Roof, who is white, is accused of fatally shooting nine black parishioners during a Bible study at the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015. Roof, who was 21 at the time, entered the Emanuel AME Church armed and “with the intent of killing African-Americans engaged in the exercise of their religious beliefs,” according to the federal indictment against him. The parishioners welcomed Roof into their Bible study group, according to the indictment, after which Roof drew his pistol and opened fire, killing nine and wounding three.

Richardson said Wednesday morning that when the 12 parishioners stood to pray, Roof started shooting victim after victim, WCIV reported.

Richardson said that survivor Polly Sheppard later recounted seeing Roof’s boots move closer and closer to her, and when Roof found her praying aloud, he told her to shut up and asked if she was wounded, WCIV reported.

She said she wasn’t, and Roof allegedly told her she would live so she could tell what happened, Richardson said, according to WCIV.

Victim Tywanza Sanders stood up to Roof when he was wounded, Richardson said, allegedly telling Roof, “We mean you no harm,” WCIV reported.

Richardson said Roof allegedly said, “Y’all are raping our white women. Y’all are taking over the world,” WCIV reported. Then Roof shot Sanders repeatedly, Richardson said, according to WCIV.

Survivor Felicia Sanders and her granddaughter were not hit but played dead “on the blood-soaked floor,” Richardson said, according to WCIV. Once the rampage was over, Roof walked out of the church, got in his car and drove away, Richardson said, WCIV reported.

In the months before the shooting, Roof “decided to attack African-Americans because of their race,” and he selected black worshippers at a predominantly black church “to make his attack more notorious,” according to the federal indictment.

Roof hoped the attack would “increase racial tensions across the Nation” and bring “retribution for perceived wrongs he believed African-Americans had committed against white people,” the indictment states.

According to the indictment, Roof maintained a website on which he posted “a manuscript and photographs expressing his racist beliefs.” In the manuscript, he used racial slurs and decried integration, the indictment states. The photos include one of Roof holding a confederate flag, according to the indictment.

The 33 federal counts against him include hate crimes resulting in death and obstruction of exercise of religion resulting in death.

Roof has pleaded not guilty.

He also faces a state trial, set for early next year, in which he may also face the death penalty.
 
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