Roof suffered bruises to his face and back after Stafford reportedly struck him with his fist. The incident did not involve weapons, according to Maj. Stafford’s cell wasn’t locked and he was able to run down a flight of stairs and attack Roof before being apprehended.
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Dylann Roof, 22, was outside of his cell at the North Charleston jail where he is detained when the assault occurred, Charleston County Sheriff’s Major Eric Watson said in a phone interview.
Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black parishioners during bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, was assaulted in prison by another inmate on his way to the jail shower.
“This serves as a wake-up call”, Cannon said.
Cannon said there was no concrete indication that the attack was racially motivated “beyond the obvious speculation that we would all have given the nature of the situation”. Besides this, two staffers from the detention center are charged with watching Roof while he is out of his cell. The 26-year-old Stafford is awaiting trial on first-degree assault and strong-armed robbery charges.
Authorities stated that the altercation was broken up by a detention officer who was assigned as one of two detention officer to that particular housing unit. Prosecutors in that case have not said if they will pursue the death penalty. He had been picked up there while allegedly trying to flee to Nashville, Tennessee.
Roof could face the death penalty if convicted in upcoming trials in both federal and state courts.
The state court is also seeking to punish Roof via the death penalty.
According to a report from WCNC, Roof’s attorney’s are now challenging federal prosecutor’s intent to seek the death penalty for their client.
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Investigators quickly determined that the shooting spree was a hate crime and declared that Roof had committed the act as an attempt to start a race war.
