Dylann Roof hears from his victims' relatives: 'You’re Satan himself, and instead of a heart, you have a cold, dark space'

By Jenny Jarvie

Jan. 11, 2017 2:50 PM PT

Reporting from CHARLESTON, S.C. — One by one, loved ones of the nine black parishioners gunned down by Dylann Roof stood up in federal court Wednesday, expressing anguish and anger — and, in some cases, forgiveness — as they addressed the 22-year-old white supremacist before the judge formally sentenced him to death.

Many expressed relief that the jury on Tuesday decided Roof should die for slaughtering five men and four women who had gathered at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for a Bible study. Yet although some told Roof his soul was destined for hell, others said they trusted that he eventually would repent and that God would show him mercy.

“When I look at you, I just see somebody is cold, who is lost, who the devil has come back to reclaim,” said Felicia Sanders, who survived the shooting but lost her son, Tywanza Sanders, the youngest victim at 26.

“You are in my head, all day,” she told Roof, explaining how easily she’s startled now. “I can’t hear balloons pop. I can’t see the fireworks. I can’t hear something as small as an acorn drop from out of a tree. And most importantly, I cannot shut my eye to pray. Even when I try, I cannot, because I have to keep my eye on everyone around me.”

Sanders clutched the bloodstained Bible she took to church on the fateful evening of June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. Even though it’s all “bruised, torn up, shot up” she told Roof, she still cherished her book. “It reminds me of the blood Jesus shed for me and you, Dylann Roof… it will never lose its power.”

“I feel sad for you,” she told him. “Yes, I forgive you, that was the easiest thing I had to do. But you can’t help someone who don’t want to help themselves.... May God have mercy on your soul.”

Roof has expressed no remorse. He looked straight ahead Wednesday, refusing to meet the gaze of his victims’ mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughters and sons.

Many pleaded with Roof to look at them.

“Dylann! Dylann! DYLANN!” Janet Scott, Tywanza Sanders’ aunt, said, her soft voice swelling as she tried to ask Roof why he had not given her nephew a chance to show him how much love was in the church that night. “I wish you would look at me, boy, but I know you hear me.”

Roof still would not look at her.

“You don’t want to look at us,” whispered Dan Simmons Jr., who lost his father. “I’m going to speak to the spirit that possesses you.”

“Feel the awesome power of the Holy Spirit,” he urged Roof, who stared blankly ahead. “It flows like a river that runs with the blood of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to look at me, but I see that spirit. I want you to think about that as I forgive you for your act.”

“God requires me to forgive you,” he said. “He also requires me to plead and to pray for you.”

Some relatives and members of Emanuel Church threw questions at Roof, even as they knew he was unlikely to reply.

“How dare you sit here every day looking dumb-faced and acting like you did nothing?” said Ashland Temoney, niece of DePayne Middleton-Doctor, a 49-year-old mother of four who worked as a university enrollment counselor. “You are the biggest coward I have seen in my life.”

“What are you?” asked Marsha Spencer, who recently joined Emanuel Church, noting that the first day she entered the courthouse she was so afraid of looking into the face of evil she had a hard time bringing herself to walk in the door. “What kind of subhuman miscreant could commit such evil?... Perhaps, like Judas, you were destined to be nothing other than a pathetic and reviled excuse for a human being.”

Some family members offered to pray for Roof, and a few said they hoped his life would be spared.

“I still don’t want you to die,” said the Rev. Sharon Risher, the daughter of Ethel Lance, 70. “I want you to be able to sit in that cell.”

Many took pains to remind Roof that he had ultimately failed in his mission to spread hatred and sow division across Charleston and the nation.

“You didn’t destroy anything,” said Mable Washington, Tywanza Sander’s aunt. “You brought us together.”

After the shooting, Washington didn’t go want to go to work, she said. At first, everyone walked around on eggshells, but eventually, she said, the incident brought them closer. One of her colleagues, she told Roof, told her: “I feel sick being a white person.”

“You wanted people to start a race war,” said Melvin Graham, who lost his sister Cynthia Hurd. “You wanted people to kill each other. Instead of starting a race war, you started a love war.”

“Hate has not had a final word,” said Eric Manning, Emanuel’s new pastor, noting that his parishioners still meet for Bible study in the same room to share bread and water in what they refer to as the “love feast.” “Love still continues to prevail…. We love you in Jesus’ name.”

Referring to the room where the Bible study meets, he added, “If we’re quiet, we can hear the echoes of the Holy Spirit throughout that lower level. What Satan may have meant for evil, God has meant for good.”

Some family members expressed satisfaction with the death penalty, saying it was a fitting outcome after jurors found Roof guilty of all 33 charges against him, including multiple counts of committing a hate crime against black victims, obstructing the exercise of religion and using a firearm to commit murder.

Others went further, saying they hoped he went to hell.

“You’re Satan himself, and instead of a heart, you have a cold, dark space,” said Gracyn Doctor, daughter of DePayne Middleton-Doctor. “Hopefully, you will go straight to hell… where you will spend an eternity. As you wait for your death, I hope your conscience eats you alive.”

Within many families, there were complex feelings on Roof’s ultimate fate.

“I’m not going to say go to hell,” said Cynthia Taylor, who lost her aunt Susie Jackson, the 87-year-old matriarch of the church. “Satan’s got your mind now, but God’s going to find it later.”

Yet Gayle Jackson, who also lost her aunt Susie, told Roof she had little hope for him.

“I want your soul to burn in hell,” she said. “I ask God to have mercy on your mother’s soul. Today my mother can’t even step her foot in the church.”

After scores of loved ones and Emanuel parishioners addressed Roof, he declined to speak.

“The defendant will now pay for his crimes with his life,” U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel told the court as he formally confirmed Roof’s death sentence.

Roof stood impassively, twisting his mouth and rubbing his forefingers and thumbs together as Gergel quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ And so justice will be done.”

Jarvie is a special correspondent.

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