FBI: The Charleston shooting suspect shouldn't have been able to buy a gun
According to the FBI, the 21-year-old charged in a church shooting rampage was able to purchase a .45 caliber in April because the examiner of Dylann Roof's federal background check did not see a police report in which Roof admitted to drug possession. That would have barred him from buying the weapon.
In a briefing on Friday, FBI Director James Comey expressed shock and remorse at the agency's role in failing to notice the slip up.
"The bottom line is clear," Comey said. "Dylann Roof should not have been allowed to purchase the gun that day."
"We are all sick this happened," Comey said. "We wish we could turn back time."
"The thought that an error on our part is connected to a gun this person used to slaughter these people is very painful to us," Comey said, according to the Washington Post.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Comey said that he is investigating the incident. The agency will also reportedly make recommendations for strengthening background checks in response to revelations about the mistake.
Roof, a 21-year-old white man linked to racist views, is charged in the June 17 shooting rampage at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black people were killed.
The shooting reignited calls for gun control legislation that requires stricter background checks.
"We don't know if [gun reform] would have prevented what happened in Charleston," President Obama said in June. "No reform can guarantee elimination of violence, but we might still have some more Americans with us."
Following the shooting, pictures of Roof draped in a Confederate flag and posing in front of Confederate monuments inspired a heated debate about the flag.
Several days after the shooting, the Confederate flag flew at full mast on the South Carolina capitol grounds, which sparked calls from politicians and faith leaders to remove the Confederate flag.
On Friday, the state finally took the flag down.