SC to seek death penalty in Dylann Roof’s church massacre case

Dylann Roof, 21, in North Carolina, June 18, 2015. (Jason Miczek/Reuters)

Dylann Roof (CNN)

Accused Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof looked solemn as he appeared remotely by video before a judge on June 19, 2015. (Pool/CNN)

Dylann Roof is pictured in this undated photo taken from his Facebook account. Roof is suspected of fatally shooting nine people at a historically black South Carolina church in Charleston on June 18, 2015.

Dylann Roof, right, is charged with murdering nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston. (Randall Hill/Reuters)

Dylann Roof, right, is charged with murdering nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston. (Randall Hill/Reuters)

CHARLESTON, S.C.— South Carolina will seek the death penalty against the man charged in the June massacre of nine people at a Charleston church, court documents showed on Thursday.

Dylann Roof, 21, faces charges of murdering nine members of the Emanuel AME Church during a Bible study session. Roof is white and the nine slain people were black.

Roof faces additional federal hate-crime charges that also raise the possibility of a death sentence.

Ninth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, has scheduled a news conference for Thursday afternoon regarding the case against Roof.

In the court filings, she wrote that “Dylann Storm Roof by his act of murder knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place.”

The death penalty decision could determine how Roof pleads. He has not entered a plea so far in the state’s murder case.

At his July 31 arraignment on separate federal hate-crime and firearms charges, his attorney said Roof wanted to plead guilty, but deferred a decision until U.S. prosecutors announced the death penalty in that case.