Records show Roof made many trips to city before killings

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Through a dozen witnesses on Tuesday, federal prosecutors reconstructed the activities of Dylann Roof in the months leading up to the night he went to a black Charleston church and shot nine members to death during a Bible study session.

Using data from a Garmin GPS found in Roof’s car when he was arrested, Joseph Hamski, the lead FBI agent on the case, testified that Roof left Columbia at 6:13 p.m. on the night of the shootings at Emanuel AME Church, arriving in downtown Charleston an hour and a half later.

At 8:16 p.m., church surveillance images show him walking into the church. By 9:06 p.m., he’s seen walking out, a black gun in his hand.

Roof, who is white, faces 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion. Roof’s attorneys have said repeatedly in both federal and state court that their 22-year-old client is willing to plead guilty if capital punishment is taken off the table, a request prosecutors have refused. Roof faces another death penalty trial next year in state court.

Prior to that night, Hamski testified, Roof made multiple trips to Charleston, stopping at plantations in the area and posing for photographs on a beach. Images of Roof’s travels around the Charleston area were shown in court and previously appeared on his website, lastrhodesian.com, along with his racially inflammatory writings and photographs of Roof posing with a Confederate flag. An AT&T employee testified a call was made to the church from Roof’s home in February.