FBI: Background-check system FAILED and Dylann Roof should NOT have been allowed to purchase a gun
- The suspected church massacre gunman admitted to drug possession in February - which should have prevented him from buying a gun
- But data from his arrest was improperly entered into FBI's background check system, making it possible for Roof to buy .45 Glock in April
- He is accused of using the gun to shoot dead nine people during a Bible-study class in Charleston, South Carolina, last month
- '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,' said FBI Director James Comey
Dylann Roof, the gunman charged in the South Carolina church massacre, should not have been allowed to purchase the weapon allegedly used in the attack, FBI Director James Comey admitted Friday.
Addressing a small group of reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington DC, Comey attributed the problem to incomplete and inaccurate paperwork related to Roof's arrest weeks before the shooting.
He says an FBI examiner who looked into Roof's background when he tried to purchase a gun never saw an arrest report in which police say he admitted to possessing drugs.
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Dylann Roof, pictured after his arrest and with the Glock be bought in spring, is accused of shooting dead nine black people at a church in Charleston last month
FBI Director James Comey, who has admitted Roof should have been blocked from buying a gun
Under FBI rules, that admission should have disqualified Roof from being able to buy a gun.
But the arresting agency was listed erroneously on the rap sheet that the examiner reviewed. And the transaction went through after three days because the examiner didn't have enough information to authorize or deny it.
On June 17, Roof is said to have arrived at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and opened fire on African-American parishioners during a bible study class.
Nine people were killed in the attack - among them state Senator Clementa Pinckney who was eulogized by President Barack Obama during his funeral.
Comey said today: '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.'
Roof, a suspected white supremacist, posed with a gun on website photographs such as this one
The photos were posted earlier this year, just a few weeks before Roof is said to have killed nine people
In photographs posted on a website associated with Roof, the 21-year-old suspected white supremacist poses with a gun that looked like a .45 Glock pistol. A weapon of that make and caliber was used in the mass shooting.
Comey said that a breakdown in FBI’s background check system made it possible for Roof to purchase the Glock in April after he turned 21.
Roof had been arrested in February on a felony drug possession charge. During questioning, he reportedly confessed to the crime - an admission that should have rendered him unfit to buy a firearm under federal law.
But the information from Roof's arrest was not properly plugged into FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, Comey stated.
The FBI director alluded to the fact that had that data been entered fully and correctly, the deadly shooting might have been averted.
Roof bought this .45 Glock in April after celebrating his 21st birthday, despite his arrest for drug possession
Roof, pictured a day after the massacre, has been indicted on nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder
‘We are all sick this happened,’ he said, according to the New York Times. ‘We wish we could turn back time.’
Investigators had previously insisted that Roof purchased the handgun legally, despite his drug case.
He was indicted earlier this week by a grand jury on nine counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder.
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