Editor’s note: After speaking with two members of Dylann Roof’s family, The Intercept, the outlet from which this piece obtained its information, can no longer stand by the premise of this story. Read The Intercept's full retraction statement here.
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Dylann Roof’s hatred for black people—in horrific display during his shooting spree last week inside a historically black church—may have been stoked by jealousy when a girl he liked began to date a black guy, The Intercept reports.
Scoff Roof told The Intercept that his cousin “went over the edge when a girl [Dylann] liked starting dating a black guy two years back.”
In this classic scenario of one guy ending up with the romantic crush of another, Dylann’s ego was particularly bruised because he lost out to an African American, according to the cousin.
“Dylann liked her,” Scott said. “The black guy got her. He changed.”
Scott’s remarks might suggest to some that Dylann might not have carried out the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., if he hadn’t felt slighted by a black guy. “I don’t know if we would be here if not—” Scott said before abruptly hanging up the phone and ending the interview.
Scott also said that music promoting white supremacy emboldened his cousin’s racist thinking.
“Dylann was normal until he started listening to that white power music stuff,” Scott said.
Read more at The Intercept.
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