Charleston church shooter staging hunger strike in prison

Dylann Roof, 25, who killed nine people in South Carolina in 2015, alleges that he is being abused by prison staff

Guardian staff and agency
Wed 26 Feb 2020 13.29 GMT
Last modified on Wed 26 Feb 2020 14.13 GMT

The white supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof has staged a hunger strike this month while on federal death row, alleging in letters to the Associated Press that he has been “targeted by staff,” “verbally harassed and abused without cause” and “treated disproportionately harsh”.

The 25-year-old Roof, who killed nine black church members during a Bible study at a famous church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, told the AP in a letter dated 13 February that the staff at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, feel justified in their conduct “since I am hated by the general public”.

A person familiar with the matter said Roof had been on a hunger strike but was no longer on one, as of this week. The person could not immediately provide specific details about the length of the hunger strike or whether medical staff needed to intervene. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

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Earlier this month, Roof wrote in his letter to the AP that he went on the hunger strike to protest against the treatment he received from a Bureau of Prisons disciplinary hearing officer over earlier complaints that he was refused access to the law library and access to a copy machine to file legal papers.

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