Disturbing website with dozens of photos of the alleged Charleston shooter
By Maxwell Tani
Two people are claiming to have found the website belonging to a 21-year-old who’s accused of killing nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday.
Using a reverse Whois finder, two Twitter users found lastrhodesian.com, which appears to have been registered by alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Roof in February.
The Twitter users who found the site operate under the names Emma Quangel and Henry Krinkle.
While we can’t verify that Roof made the site, it includes a number of pictures that appear to be him and other disturbing and racist content.
Roof is shown in several photos with a handgun. He’s also seen posing in front of confederate symbols, including a former South Carolina plantation and a confederate museum.
The photos are filled with other racist imagery, including the number “1488” drawn in sand. According to the Anti-Defamation League, 1488 is a widely-used racist symbol that combines a 14-word white supremacist slogan and “Heil Hitler.”
The author of the site attributed to Roof writes about being supposedly discriminated against in school. The author also claims to have been radically “awakened” by the backlash to the Trayvon Martin shooting in 2011. Martin, who was black, was walking unarmed through his Florida neighborhood when he was confronted and shot by volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.
“I read the Wikipedia article and right away I was unable to understand what the big deal was. It was obvious that [George] Zimmerman was in the right,” the site says.
According to the New York Daily News, Roof’s close friend said that the alleged shooter obsessed over Martin, as well as the protests and riots following the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who died from injuries suffered while in police custody.
The site also contains an ominous message that could reference the shooting.
“I have no choice. 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 site says.
