Dylann Roof’s Sister Arrested After Menacing Social Media Message

COLUMBIA, SC — The sister of condemned Charleston, South Carolina, church killer Dylann Roof was arrested Wednesday after police said she brought weapons to her school and posted a message to Snapchat that “caused alarm to the student body.” Morgan Roof, 18, was upset about the National School Walkout Wednesday and brought a knife and pepper spray to A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina, according to a statement from police.

According to several media outlets that received screenshots of the Snapchat message, it said: “Your walking out of the allowed time of 17 min, they are letting you do this, nothing is gonna change what the (expletive) you think it’s going to do? I hope it’s a trap and y’all get shot we know it’s fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway.”

Roof was one of three students accused of bringing weapons to A.C. Flora this week. On Tuesday, two 16-year-old students were arrested for bringing weapons to school. One, who authorities said brought a loaded Smith & Wesson .380 handgun to school in his book bag, was detained at a juvenile facility and the other student was released to his parents,WIS-TV reported.

Roof was charged with one count of marijuana possession and two counts of carrying a weapon on school grounds, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

Her bond was set at $5,000 and she has since been released, but ordered to stay away from her school.
No one was harmed in either incident and school officials “acted appropriately” by alerting school officials, the sheriff’s department said.

A.C. Flora Principal Susan Childs said in a statement that “a student used social media to post a hateful message.”

“The posting was not a threat, but was extremely inappropriate,” Collins said. “That student was dealt with in a swift and severe manner as the posting caused quite a disruption.”

Several A.C. Flora students participated in the ENOUGH National Student Walkout and “the event went well with only a minor verbal disagreement that occurred at the dismissal of the event,” Childs said. Rumors that a student had brought a weapon to the voluntary student-led event were debunked, she said.

“I realize that rumors and the tragic school shootings in Florida are events that can cause anxiety for our students, parents, faculty, and the community,” Childs said. “Be assured that the safety of our students will always be our top priority. We must continue to work together to maintain a safe and positive learning environment.”

In a statement on Twitter, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said that “potential tragedy” had been avoided at the school and that “students and educators reacted quickly to reports of suspicious activity.”

Dylann Roof, 22, an avowed white supremacist, was was sentenced to death in January for shooting and killing nine African-American parishioners at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015. A judge formally approved the sentence last month. Roof had wanted to start “a race war,” a friend of his once told investigators.

Photo via Richland County Sheriff’s Department