Charleston church killings: SLED has photos from Roof’s camera

Law enforcement agents have downloaded images and photographs from a digital camera owned by Dylann Storm Roof and that data is now in evidence in the case against Roof.

Roof, 21, of Columbia, is facing nine counts of murder in state court in the June killings of nine African-Americans at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston.

What is called a “return” on a search warrant for Roof’s camera was released Tuesday morning in response to a Freedom of Information request by The State newspaper. It confirms that SLED agents seized a 14-megapixel Kodak Easyshare camera, Model C1530, that authorities believe belonged to Roof. The camera is a standard point-and-shoot that sells for about $100.

The documents do not say where the camera was found.

The search warrant was issued June 18, one day after the Charleston shootings, by Circuit Judge Robert Hood. He redacted, or censored, most details in the warrant.

“This office redacted portions of the documents because they contain information that could reasonably jeopardize the ongoing investigation into these events and the future prosecution of the defendant ... The release of these redacted portions could threaten both the defendant’s and State’s right to a fair trial,” Hood said in releasing the documents.

The warrant said that the camera “is needed to continue the criminal investigation of murder and to compare the property sought to the video images taken from the Mother Emanuel Church and any other pertinent related images.”

Before going to Charleston, Roof published on an Internet site a manifesto revealing that he was an avowed white supremacist who wanted to kill blacks, according to prosecutors. The Internet site contained numerous photos of Roof with a Glock handgun and/or a Confederate flag.

The seized camera may well have been the camera that Roof used to take the images prosecutors say he posted online, although the search warrants did not confirm that.

A SLED agent “conducted a forensic examination of the said property and transferred the photographs and images from it onto a DVD,” the warrant said.

Another heavily redacted warrant return released Tuesday by Hood concerned items seized from Roof’s 4-door Hyundai Elantra sedan. Hood redacted all items; a prior SLED report, also redacted, said there were 36 items in the car.

Roof is scheduled for trial in July. Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson is seeking the death penalty. The federal government is prosecuting Roof separately.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 11:08 AM with the headline "Charleston church killings: SLED has photos from Roof’s camera."