Justice Department Seeking Death Penalty Against Charleston Church Massacre Shooter

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP)-- The Justice Department says it intends to seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the man charged with killing nine black parishioners last year in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the decision in a brief statement Tuesday.

The white man who joined a prayer meeting inside a historic black church and then fatally shot nine people was captured without resistance after an all-night manhunt in June.

Roof, 21, had spent nearly an hour inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church night before killing six women and three men, including the pastor, police said.

The gunman was welcomed by the devout Christians gathered for Bible study. They had no idea he was holding a gun and a heart filled with hate. Roof's childhood friend alerted the FBI after recognizing him in a surveillance camera image that was widely circulated.

An eyewitness told authorities Roof stood up in the church and said words to the effect that he was there to shoot black people and made other derogatory remarks before opening fire, a law enforcement source told CBS News.

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