Police: Alleged Church Shooter Dylann Roof Assaulted in Jail

Police: Alleged Church Shooter Dylann Roof Assaulted in Jail
This June 18, 2015, file photo, provided by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office shows Dylann Roof. (Charleston County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
The Associated Press
8/4/2016
Updated:
8/4/2016

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Deputies say Dylann Roof, charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a Charleston church, has been assaulted by another inmate at the South Carolina jail where he is being held.

Charleston County Sheriff’s Maj. Eric Watson tells The Associated Press that the assault occurred outside Roof’s cell Thursday morning.

Watson says the other inmate used his hands, no other weapons, and that the 22-year-old Roof was examined by jail medical personnel and then returned to his cell. The other inmate faces assault charges.

Sheriff Al Cannon is holding an early afternoon news conference to discuss the assault.

Roof has been housed at the Charleston County Detention Center since being brought back from North Carolina a day after the June 17, 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church.

Roof’s attorneys filed a motion this week challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty. “The death penalty — in and of itself — constitutes an unconstitutional punishment,” his lawyers wrote, according to court papers.

They argued that capital punishment is problematic for a number of reasons. 

“The [Federal Death Penalty Act] may have been designed with as much care as possible under the circumstances, the capital sentencing process that the statute provides is constitutionally inadequate in practice,” they argued.

Epoch Times contributed to this report.