Admitted white nationalist Dylann Roof was quickly convicted by a South Carolina federal jury on Thursday of all 33 hate-crime charges against him in the Charleston church massacre trial.

It took jurors just two hours to find Roof, 22, guilty of fatally shooting nine African-American worshipers as they stood and closed their eyes to pray during a Wednesday night Bible study in the basement of the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015.

Roof, who eagerly confessed that he’d hoped to start a race war, stood without apparent emotion in the hushed courtroom as the jury foreman declared him guilty of hate crimes resulting in death, of obstructing religion, and of using a firearm to commit murder.

Related Video Video length 1 minute 25 seconds 1:25 Video shows Dylan Roof performing target practice Video shows Dylan Roof performing target practice

He must now wait until early next year for the penalty phase of the trial, during which the same jury will determine if he will be executed or allowed to live out his life in prison. He said two weeks ago that he plans to act as his own lawyer for that phase.

The majority female and white jury — comprised of one black man and one white man, and two black women and eight white women — had sat through six days of testimony, and began deliberating at 1:15 p.m. Thursday.

The 3:20 p.m. verdict followed closing arguments by both sides earlier in the day.

“There is no bravery in this defendant,” Assistant US Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors, a reference to Roof’s claims that no one else was brave enough to have committed the killings.

Instead, Roof’s “actions show the cowardice that he had on that day,” Williams said. “You can see what kind of hatred he had: a vast hatred that was cold and calculated.”

The prosecutor added, “He must be held accountable for each and every action he took inside that church. For every life he took.”

Roof did not take the stand in his own defense, and his lawyers did not call witnesses on his behalf. Instead, defense lawyer David Bruck used his closings as what may be his only chance to argue against the death penalty.

Bruck tried to portray Roof as an impressionable, suicidal young man whose hatred was fueled by white supremacist websites.

Prosecutors got the last word, though. Assistant US Attorney Stephen Curran told jurors that Roof meticulously planned the attack over the course of months, then made a two-hour taped confession in which he eagerly and cogently celebrated what he’d just done.

“You see a calm, confident, callous man who showed no sign that mental illness had anything to do with it,” Richardson said.</s>The State has a team of reporters in Charleston giving up-to-the-minute updates on Dylann Roof’s federal death penalty trial, which started Dec. 7.

Roof is accused of shooting nine black parishioners to death at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston in June of 2015.

Read The State’s live tweets from the Dylann Roof trial:</s>CHARLESTON, S.C. | The Latest on the federal death penalty trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine black people during a South Carolina church Bible study (all times local):

A federal jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina.

The jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations. They convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges.

They will reconvene next month to decide whether he should get the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison.

Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout the trial.</s>Dylann Roof Found Guilty of All Charges in Charleston Massacre

Dylann Roof has been found guilty for killing nine people at a Charleston, South Carolina church on June 17, 2015. Just two hours after closing arguments, the jury handed down a guilty verdict for all 33 federal charges levied against Roof, a white supremacist who gunned down the nine black parishioners, including Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a state senator and senior pastor at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church, reportedly because he wanted to start a race war.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams addressed the jury in closing arguments:

"He needs to be held accountable for every bullet," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told the jury, emphasizing what he said was the depth of Roof's hatred. "The parishioners could not have seen the hatred in his heart," Williams said. "He sat and waited until they were at their most vulnerable."

Felicia Sanders, one of three survivors of Roof's violence described the experience of being in the courtroom for his trial, during which time the young racist refused to look at her, or any member of his victims' families.

Roof's conviction is not unexpected. He had confessed to the crime on a video that was played in full during the trial, and had published a manifesto online that detailed his motives.

Despite the confession, Roof plead not guilty to the charges, which include hate crimes charges and nine counts of using a firearm to kill. The sentencing phase of the trial will begin January 3 to decide if Roof will receive the death sentence or life in prison without parole.

On Twitter, there were expressions of anger at Roof's crime and relief at his conviction, though many point out that this is just one guilty verdict, a drop in the bucket in an unjust system that regularly returns not-guilty decisions for white police officers accused of killing black people.



Understand that the Emanuel Nine lived every day in a country that did not value them. Understand that they lived every day in a country had been striving to end their lives. Understand that they lived in a country where the color of their skin made them subject to abuse, neglect, discrimination, poverty, and invisibility. Understand that many of the Emanuel Nine lived through Jim Crow, through racist slurs, through spit in their faces, through overwhelming oppression, through abject dehumanization. Understand that if the Emanuel Nine had instead been shot by trigger-happy police in individual traffic stops, none of their killers would see a day in prison. Understand that they lived every day knowing that.

I'll leave you with the words of President Barack Obama's indelible eulogy after the massacre and, more recently, those of Stranger contributor Ijeoma Oluo from her essay, " The Conviction of Dylann Roof Represents The Very Least We Can Do ":</s>CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Latest on the federal death penalty trial of Dylann Roof, who was convicted of killing nine black people during a South Carolina church Bible study (all times local):

A federal jury has convicted Dylann Roof in the racially motivated slayings of nine black church members in South Carolina.

The jury reached its verdict after less than two hours of deliberations. They convicted the 22-year-old white man of hate crimes and other charges.

They will reconvene next month to decide whether he should get the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison.

Roof just stared ahead as the verdict was read, much as he has throughout the trial.

Jurors have reached a verdict in the federal death penalty trial of a man charged with killing nine black parishioners during Bible study at a South Carolina church.

The verdict will be announced soon on the guilt or innocence of 22-year-old Dylann Roof.

The jury of nine white people and three black people deliberated less than two hours before returning a verdict. Roof faces 33 federal charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of the practice of religion.

If they find Roof guilty, the same jury will return Jan. 3 to consider if Roof should be sentenced to death for the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

He is slated to face another death penalty trial in state court early next year.

The jury deciding whether Dylann Roof is guilty of killing nine black worshippers at a Charleston church wants to rehear part of his videotaped confession.

The jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel about an hour into their deliberations asking to listen again to Roof being questioned and talking about how many people he might have killed.

Roof told FBI agents he killed about five people, and was later surprised when the agents told him nine people were shot and killed in June 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.

Gergel decided to set up the two-hour confession where jurors could watch as much or as little as they wanted to.

The jury is made up of nine whites and three blacks.

It’s now up to jurors to mull the guilt or innocence of a man charged with slaying nine black worshippers during Bible study at a South Carolina church.

Deliberations are getting underway Thursday afternoon in the case of Dylann Roof. He faces 33 federal charges including hate crimes.

Jurors heard from witnesses who testified Roof made multiple trips to Charleston in the months before the June 2015 attack at Emanuel AME Church. They also heard from two survivors. Roof’s attorneys called no witnesses.

Prosecutors said in their closing arguments Roof was filled with hate and has already confessed to the FBI to his role in the shootings. Defence attorneys portrayed Roof as a suicidal loner who never fully grasped the severity of what he has done.

The jury’s decision must be unanimous. If Roof is convicted, the same panel will reconvene Jan. 3 to begin considering if he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Dylann Roof’s lawyer has asked jurors to consider what was going on in his head as he planned the killings of nine black worshippers in a racially motivated attack at a Charleston church.

Defence attorney David Bruck conceded in his closing argument Thursday that Roof killed the victims at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015 and even praised the FBI investigation.

But Bruck also argued Roof was a suicidal, impressionable loner who never grasped the gravity of what he did.

Prosecutors successfully objected to several of Bruck’s arguments as he tried to argue Roof’s mental status. A judge has ruled that talking about his mental state is reserved for the next phase when jurors — if they find Roof guilty — will decide he if faces the death penalty.

Roof has said he will act as his own attorney during that part of the trial.

A prosecutor says the goodness of the victims who were slaughtered at a Charleston church has defeated Dylann Roof’s message of racial hatred.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams said Thursday in his closing argument that jurors should have no doubt about Roof’s guilt. He apologized before showing crime scene photos of the bodies with small pictures of each person when they were alive beside them.

Williams mocked Roof for calling his actions brave, saying the true bravery was in the black churchgoers who died trying to stop him.

Jurors will consider if Roof, who is white, is guilty of 33 charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.

Federal prosecutors have started their closing argument in Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial by saying the 22-year-old white man targeted nine black church members when they were most vulnerable.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told jurors Thursday that Roof waited until the Bible study group had its eyes closed for prayer before Roof opened fire.

Williams said he was going to concentrate less on the evidence and more on Roof’s hatred, cowardice and immense racial ignorance.

Williams says Roof believed black people were animals and less than human when he violated the sanctuary of the church and killed nine people on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Church.

Roof did not react to Williams’ arguments.

Roof’s attorneys will have a chance to make a closing argument.

Jurors will likely soon be asked to decide if the man accused in the shooting deaths of nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church is guilty of federal hate crimes.

Closing arguments are expected when the jury arrives Thursday morning at Dylann Roof’s death penalty trial. The judge will hand jurors the case a short time later.

Jurors will decide if Roof is guilty or not guilty of 33 separate charges, including hate crimes and obstruction of religion charges for each of the nine people killed and three who survived the June 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.

If they find Roof guilty, the same jurors will return Jan. 3 for the next phase of the trial to determine if he’s sentenced to death or life in prison.</s>Charleston, South Carolina (CNN) Esther Lance was torn over how to punish Dylann Roof, the man found guilty of killing her mother and eight others at a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, last year.

"Yes, I want him to see the death penalty," Lance told CNN's Nick Valencia after a jury on Thursday convicted Roof on all 33 federal charges against him.

But Lance, 53, quickly changed her mind, saying she and her late 70-year-old mother, once a custodian at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, wouldn't want Roof to get that punishment.

"My mom wouldn't have wanted that," she said of Ethel Lance, a city employee for more than three decades, who had worked back stage at Gaillard Auditorium.

Ethel Lance, 70, a retired city employee who worked as a custodian at Emanuel Baptist Church, was killed in the June 2015 shooting.

Next month, the jury will wrestle with whether to sentence Roof to the death penalty. That phase of his trial is expected to start on Tuesday, January 3. Roof has said he wants to represent himself in that part of the case.

In August, Roof's attorneys had challenged the federal death penalty. They argued that the Federal Death Penalty Act "is unconstitutional, no one can be lawfully sentenced to death or executed under it, no matter what his crimes."

His lawyers said if federal prosecutors removed the death penalty, Roof would "withdraw this motion and plead guilty as charged to all counts in the indictment."

Roof's attorneys said the federal penalty was "unconstitutional punishment" and that such "arbitrary, cruel and unusual punishment" violated both the Fifth and Eighth Amendments.

A week ago, opening statements in Roof's trial began and witnesses gave emotional accounts of surviving the 70 rounds Roof fired from a Glock.45-caliber pistol on June 17, 2015.

Roof didn't take the stand in his defense. The self-declared white supremacist has admitted to the killings.

His conviction came about two hours after jurors deliberated.

'Waited until they were at their most vulnerable'

"He needs to be held accountable for every bullet," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams told the jury, emphasizing what he said was the depth of Roof's hatred.

"The parishioners could not have seen the hatred in his heart," Williams said. "He sat and waited until they were at their most vulnerable."

Family members of the victims sobbed as Williams spoke.

Defense attorney David Bruck said Williams was correct about the events.

"Why, why did Dylann Roof do this?" Bruck said. "What was the explanation?"

Bruck asked the jury to "look beyond the surface" and to ask, "Is there something more to this story?"

'Kind of lost it a little bit'

The defense did not call any witnesses.

Esther Lance said she was "angry" to be in same room as the man responsible for killing her mother.

Lance said she "kind of lost it a little bit" when she saw pictures of the crime scene for the first time. One photo showed Emanuel's beloved pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, with blood streaming from his body. But Lance said the jury needed to see the photos to understand "why he did it."

Roof had told the FBI he wanted to start a race war.

He wrote in a 2,000-word racist rant that he "chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country."

Williams, in his closing, said Roof's "message of hatred was eclipsed by the goodness of those people."

Shortly after deliberations started, the jury asked to again watch the video in which Roof confessed to two FBI agents. Specifically, the jury wanted to see the portion where Roof was unsure of how many people he had killed.

Hoping for peace for survivors and families

Of the verdict, Lance said: "We needed that."

In a statement, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said: "It is my hope that the survivors, the families, and the people of South Carolina can find some peace in the fact that justice has been served."

The Southern Poverty Law Center said Roof "represents the modern face of domestic terrorism: the extremist who acts alone after being radicalized online."

"When Roof searched 'black on white crime,' he found a flood of white supremacist propaganda. Once hard to access, that propaganda is now just a few keystrokes away from anyone, anywhere, who has access to the Internet," President Richard Cohen said in the statement.

"Charleston is still healing from Roof's horrific, racially motivated crime, as is our nation," Cohen said in the statement.

Roof pleaded not guilty to the 33 federal charges, including hate crime charges for allegedly targeting his victims on the basis of their race and religion. He also faces nine counts of murder and other charges in the state court system. His trial in that case is also scheduled to start in January.</s>Dylann Roof was convicted Thursday in the chilling attack on nine black church members who were shot to death last year during a Bible study, affirming the prosecution’s portrayal of a young white man who hoped the slayings would start a race war or bring back segregation.

Instead, the single biggest change to emerge from the June 17, 2015, slayings that shocked the nation was the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years over the Capitol or on the grounds. Roof appeared with the flag in several photos in a racist manifesto.

In his confession to the FBI, the gunman said he carried out the killings after researching “black on white crime” on the internet. He said he chose a church because that setting posed little danger to him.

Read more: Dylann Roof laughed while recounting Charleston church slaying in FBI confession

Read more: Dylann Roof to represent himself in court in church shooting trial

Read more: Judge rules Dylann Roof fit to stand trial in U.S. church shooting

As the verdict was read, Roof just stared ahead, much as he did the entire trial. Family members of victims held hands and squeezed one another’s arms. One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said “guilty.” In all, Roof was convicted of 33 counts.

Jurors will reconvene early next month to hear more testimony and decide whether Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison. Roof told the judge again Thursday that he wanted to act as his own attorney during the penalty phase.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams mocked Roof for calling himself brave in his hate-filled journal and during his confession, saying the real bravery came from the victims who tried to stop him as he fired 77 bullets at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.

“Those people couldn’t see the hatred in his heart any more than they could see the .45-calibre handgun and the eight magazines concealed around his waist,” Williams said.

Defence lawyer David Bruck conceded Roof committed the slayings, but he asked jurors to look into his head and see what caused him to become so full of hatred, calling him a suicidal loner who never grasped the gravity of what he did.

The defence put up no witnesses during the seven-day trial. They tried to present evidence about his mental state, but the judge ruled that it did not have anything to do with Roof’s guilt or innocence.

Roof was just imitating what he saw on the internet and believed he had to give his life to “a fight to the death between white people and black people that only he” could see and act on, Bruck said.

Williams’ 50-minute closing argument filled the court with tension. At times, the prosecutor raised his voice, saying Roof was a cold, calculated killer. Some family members of victims dabbed their eyes with tissues, and jurors appeared emotional when Williams, after apologizing to them, showed crime scene photos of each person killed alongside a small picture of them while alive.

Those pictures included the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, Emanuel AME’s pastor and a state senator; Myra Thompson, 59, who taught Bible study that night — the same night she was licensed to preach; Cynthia Hurd, 54, a librarian who stayed to support Thompson; Depayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, who friends said sang like an angel and was also license to preach the day of the shootings; Daniel “Dapper Dan” Simmons, 74, nicknamed for his shiny shoes and fine hats; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, a high school track coach heavily involved in the church’s youth programs; Ethel Lance, 70, the church sexton who kept the bathrooms and building immaculately clean; Susie Jackson, 87, who sang in the choir and sent generations through the church; and Tywanza Sanders, 26, Jackson’s nephew and an aspiring poet who wanted to work with children.

The prosecutor said the good of all those faithful churchgoers prevailed over Roof’s hatred.

“This defendant chose to take their lives. He chose to break their bodies. But he does not get to choose who they were,” Williams said.

In a lengthy recording played earlier at trial, Roof told FBI agents he picked Mother Emanuel because of its historic significance in the black community. The church is the oldest in the South and one of its founders Denmark Vesey led a failed 1822 slave rebellion that drove the church underground.

Roof, who was convicted of federal hate crimes and obstruction of religion, said he had felt compelled to act because of the way blacks treated whites and said the shootings were “minuscule” in comparison.

The prosecutor recounted other evidence, like how Roof sat in the church parking lot for 28 minutes in his car, likely loading the 88 bullets — a number embraced symbolically by white supremacists — into eight magazines. Roof was handed a Bible as he sat in the prayer service for nearly 45 minutes before opening fire when the worshippers closed their eyes for the final prayer. He reloaded a half-dozen times and left behind three survivors, telling one woman that he wanted to keep her alive so that she could tell the world about the shootings.

After the shootings, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley threw her support behind removing the Confederate flag from the Statehouse. She had spent years in office calling it a settled issue.

“It is my hope that the survivors, the families, and the people of South Carolina can find some peace in the fact that justice has been served,” she said in a statement.</s>CHARLESTON, S.C. — After nearly a week of painful testimony that vividly recreated the massacre at this city's famed "Mother Emanuel" church, it took jurors about two hours Thursday to convict Dylann Roof in his federal hate crimes trial.

Roof was charged with 33 counts in his federal indictment. He was found guilty on every single one. Family members of the nine parishioners gunned down last year nodded silently as each charge was read aloud. Some held hands, their eyes shut tightly, as each guilty verdict was announced in the courtroom just a mile from the church.

With Roof's guilt effectively unquestioned, this verdict was seen as likely and the trial largely hinged on what happens next. Mirroring what happened during the Boston Marathon bombing trial last year - the last case that saw the Justice Department obtain a rare federal death sentence - there was no real question about guilt. Prosecutors played video footage of Roof admitting his guilt to FBI agents, and Roof's attorneys did not argue that he was innocent.

Instead, the larger question surrounding the trial has focused on the next portion of the case, which will deal with whether Roof is sentenced to death or life in prison.

This sentencing phase is set to begin next month, and it remains far less clear what will happen there, as Roof said Thursday he still intends to represent himself there. Federal death sentences are rare, but the government has opted to seek one in this case, even though this decision has caused some unease among relatives of the victims. It is also unclear when and if the government would be able to carry out such a sentence.

Federal prosecutors had used their emotional closing arguments earlier Thursday to paint a picture of Roof, the 22-year-old who confessed to the shootings, as cruel and calculated. Earlier on Thursday, they read lines from a journal found in his car and the manifesto he posted online, and they told jurors that Roof wanted to incite a race war.

After being welcomed into Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church's bible study in June 2015, Roof sat among the parishioners and then "executed them because he believes they are nothing but animals," Nathan Williams, an assistant U.S. attorney, told jurors.

While Williams spoke, a photograph of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney was shown on the screen. The pastor, who had offered Roof a seat next to him, was wearing a crisp white shirt and new suit in the image. Both were stained by blood pooling around Pinckney, who had been shot five times in the neck, back and arm. Roof's grandmother, sitting in the courtroom while the image was displayed, wiped a tear from her eye.

Roof's attorney, David Bruck, said that the 22-year-old's actions were clearly senseless, but he described them as the actions of someone unable to perceive the world as it is.

"Why did Roof do this? Why was he motivated?" Bruck said, calling on the jury to try their best to consider who Roof is and what led him to commit such a violent act. He called Roof an immature young man who gave himself over to the "mad idea that he can make things better by executing those kind, virtuous people."

For Bruck, a widely recognized death-penalty lawyer, his closing arguments Thursday represented perhaps his last chance to address the jurors. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel agreed to let Roof represent himself during the penalty portion of the trial, though Bruck and his other attorneys will remain as standby counsel to assist him. After he was convicted, Roof reiterated his desire to represent himself.

While prosecutors will outline the aggravating factors that they believe warrant a death sentence, it is unclear what Roof will do in his own defense. Bruck had previously indicated in a court filing that he would raise the issue of Roof's mental health, which could be a mitigating factor to avoid a death sentence.

Roof had previously offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but federal authorities are still pursuing a death sentence. He is also facing a potential death sentence in a state trial, set to begin next year, on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Authorities said that in his FBI interview and manifestos, Roof had said he "had to do it" because he believed nobody was putting a stop to what he had read online about "black-on-white crime." Roof believed that it was "not too late to take the country back from blacks," prosecutors said during the trial.

During the closing arguments Thursday, Roof, wearing a dull blue cable-knit sweater and dark gray pants, did not look up while Williams recited details of the case.

"A church is a sanctuary, a place of worship, a place of safety," Williams told the jurors. Roof shattered that peace, Williams said, with a carefully-plotted attack, visiting the church numerous times before the shooting.

Prosecutors had previously said that they believed Roof self-radicalized online, drawing bigoted beliefs from the Internet rather than any personal experiences. They had also said that Roof had two handwritten manifestos along with a list of churches. Williams said Thursday that this was a group of predominantly black churches, and "the one that he chose was at the top of his list."

"A person's actions tell us what they are thinking and what is in their heart," Williams said as photos of Roof's victims were shown in the court.

Each victim was shown gunned down on the floor of the church's basement, depicted as they were at the time of their death. Above each graphic photo was a portrait of the victims as they were during their lives.

Huddled together under blankets in the chilly courtroom, the families of the victims began weeping. Some kept their heads bowed, rocking back and forth, while other held their heads high refusing to look away. One relative groaned and rushed from the courtroom as an image of Tywanza Sanders was shown, his arm outstretched toward Susie Jackson as they lie dead on the church floor. Jackson, the oldest victim at 87 years old, was shot at least 10 times, the most of any victim.

"There is no bravery in this defendant. There is no bravery in his actions. But there is bravery in this case," Williams told the jury before recounting the courage shown by the victims at the time of the shooting and the survivors who took to the witness stand to recount the massacre.

While Williams spoke, Bruck sat low in his chair, his head rested wearily on his fist. He began by apologizing for his soft-spoken nature, asking jurors to give him a signal if his voice dips too low, before asking the jury to try their best to consider who Roof is and what led him to commit such a violent act.

Bruck pointed out that Roof had no long-range plan following the shooting. During a two-hour videotaped confession, Roof told FBI agents that he had saved ammunition to shoot himself once he encountered the police. In Roof's car, investigators found handwritten notes to his parents, apologizing to his mother and father for what he had done and saying he loved them.

During his statements, Bruck made final attempts to introduce doubt regarding the Roof's mental competence, noting that Roof was unable to recall how many victims he had shot or the duration of the shooting during his confession.

"The fact that one is a racist does not tell you what else is going on," Bruck said. "And what else is going on is what you should be thinking about."

Roof was charged last year with hate crimes resulting in death, hate crimes involving attempts to kill, using a firearm during a crime of violence and with obstructing the exercise of religion resulting in death and attempts to kill people.

It took the jury in the Boston Marathon bombing's case about 11 hours to deliberate before finding Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts last year. Jurors in Charleston, deliberating on Thursday, needed about two hours to convict Roof on all counts.</s>(CNN) Dylan Storm Roof's website hinted at why he chose "historic" Charleston to shoot nine people to death at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. Along with a long, hate-filled screed, the 21-year-old included photos of himself burning an American flag, taking aim with a pistol and posing proudly at sites connected to the Confederacy.

The 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin -- the black Florida teen killed by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of murder -- prompted Roof to research online what he called "black on white crime," the manifesto said.

"At this moment I realized that something was very wrong," the manifesto said. "How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?"

Toward the end of the 2,000-word text, under a section titled "An Explanation," the writer hints at why Charleston was targeted.

"I have no choice," Roof wrote. "I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."

The website, called "The Last Rhodesian," is registered to Roof and lists him as its administrator. In an image tweeted by South Carolina authorities this week, Roof is seen wearing a jacket with the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that a white minority ruled until it became independent in 1980 and its name was changed to Zimbabwe.

Images on the website include a .45-caliber Glock pistol; Roof taking aim with the gun, and posing in front of a sign that says, "Sacred burial site. Our African ancestors" as well as outside South Carolina's Museum and Library of Confederate History; and Roof standing on and burning an American flag.

The contents of the website appear to back up what friends have said about the young man who Saturday sat in his jail cell under suicide watch.

A drunken Roof boasted one night about an unspecified six-month plan "to do something crazy," his friend Joey Meek told CNN on Friday.

The young man typically kept to himself but a liter of vodka that night seemed to fuel talk about the return of segregation and vague plans "to start a race war," Meek recalled.

"He wanted it to be white with white, and black with black," Meek said. "He had it in his mind, and he didn't really let nobody know (what he was going to do)."

Meek hid Roof's gun that night but put it back the next day, he said. "I didn't take him serious."

"Dylann wasn't a serious person; no one took him serious," Meek said. "But if someone had taken him serious, this all would all have been avoided."

On Friday, Roof was expressionless, almost solemn, as he appeared via video before Magistrate James Gosnell Jr., who opened a bond hearing by saying that there were victims on the young man's side of the family as well. The judge set a $1 million bond on the possession of a firearm count but no bond on the murder charges.

Roof almost inaudibly answered questions about his age, address and employment.

He showed no emotion as family members of his victims addressed the court and Roof, expressing both anger and forgiveness.

"I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you," a daughter of Ethel Lance said. "And have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people, but God forgives you, and I forgive you."

Felecia Sanders, mother of victim Tywanza Sanders, said that "every fiber in my body hurts, and I will never be the same."

"As we said in the Bible study, we enjoyed you," she said of Roof's time at the church before the massacre. "But may God have mercy on you."

Police caught Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, about 245 miles away from the carnage in Charleston.

He confessed to the shootings in interviews with the Charleston police and FBI, two law enforcement officials told Evan Perez and Wesley Bruer of CNN, the first network to report this development. He also told investigators he wanted to start a race war, one of those officials said.

Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

The wedding of Roof's sister, planned for this weekend, has been postponed, according to the Rev. Tony Metze, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

Metze said he met with Roof's immediate family on Friday.

"What they've asked and what I ask is that we continue to hold all these families in our prayers," Metze told CNN. "And that the whole world, our nation, Charleston, our community understand that we love them. God loves them."

Family members and friends of Roof who spoke to CNN painted a picture of a childhood and adolescence that was perhaps troubled, but there was nothing to indicate that he'd grow up to be accused of such a horrific hate crime.

"That's why all this is such a shock," said John Mullins, who attended White Knoll High School with Roof.

Dylann Roof spent his early years shuttling back and forth between his mother and father, who had divorced in 1991, four years before he was born, according to court documents.

When it came to school, he struggled -- and his attendance was poor. Roof was "very transient," said one White Knoll High School official. "He came and went." Roof flunked the ninth grade twice before dropping out.

Mullins told CNN that Roof was "kind of wild" but he wasn't violent. He was a heavy drinker, and liked to smoke marijuana, but he also dabbled in a harder variety of drugs. In February, he was arrested at a local mall for possession of Suboxone -- medication used to treat heroin addiction -- because he didn't have a prescription for it.

As far as a burgeoning streak of racism, Mullins recalled Roof occasionally making racist comments, but said he had black friends at the same time.

"They were just racist slurs in a sense," he said. "He would say it just as a joke. ... I never took it seriously, but now that he shed his other side, so maybe they should have been taken more seriously."

The months leading up to the shooting were a mix of troubling and odd. The Suboxone episode got him banned from the Columbiana Centre mall for a year, but Roof nevertheless returned April 26, prompting another arrest, and this time, a three-year ban from the mall.

Witnesses told investigators the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said.

He answered one man's plea to stop by shooting him, said Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of the church's slain pastor who has talked to a survivor.

"'No, you've raped our women, and you are taking over the country," he said, according to Johnson. "... I have to do what I have to do."

All the victims were shot multiple times, according to Roof's arrest warrant.

"Prior to leaving the bible study room he stood over a witness ... and uttered a racially inflammatory statement," the warrant said.

Investigators are looking into whether Roof had links to white supremacist or other hate groups, a law enforcement official said. There's no indication so far that he was known to law enforcement officials who focus on hate groups.

Roof turned 21 in April, and a short time later he had a gun.

On Thursday, investigators did a trace of the handgun used in Wednesday's shooting and determined that it was a .45-caliber handgun Roof purchased from a Charleston gun store in April, two law enforcement officials told CNN's Perez and Bruer.

Roof purchased a Glock .45-caliber model 41, which holds 13 rounds, a federal law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said. Witnesses have reported that Roof reloaded a number of times.

Roof's father and uncle contacted police after surveillance camera images of the suspect were made public, according to the arrest warrant. His father told authorities his son owned a .45-caliber handgun.

Joe Roof, his grandfather, said Roof was given "birthday money" and that the family didn't know what he did with it.</s>CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Dylann Roof was convicted today in the chilling attack on nine black church members who were shot to death last year during a Bible study, affirming the prosecution's portrayal of a young white man who hoped the slayings would start a race war or bring back segregation.

Instead, the single-biggest change to emerge from the June 17, 2015, slayings that shocked the nation was the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse, where it had flown for 50 years over the Capitol or on the grounds. Roof appeared with the flag in several photos in a racist manifesto.

In his confession to the FBI, the gunman said he carried out the killings after researching "black on white crime" on the internet. He said he chose a church because that setting posed little danger to him.

As the verdict was read, Roof just stared ahead, much as he did the entire trial. Family members of victims held hands and squeezed one another's arms. One woman nodded her head every time the clerk said "guilty." In all, Roof was convicted of 33 counts.

Jurors will reconvene early next month to hear more testimony and decide whether Roof gets the death penalty or life in prison. Roof told the judge again today that he wanted to act as his own attorney during the penalty phase.
Dylann Roof is convicted of the racially motivated murder of nine black churchgoers in the U.S. city of Charleston, South Carolina.