Morgan Roof
Morgan Roof
Controversial Snapchat post by Morgan Roof shared by shocked students.
Morgan Sinclair Roof is a student at A.C. Flora High School in Forest Acres, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia, South Carolina. Morgan Roof is the half-sister of Dylann Roof a white supremacist mass murderer convicted of killing 9 African Americans in the Charleston church shooting in June 2015. [1]
In March 2018, Morgan was charged after carrying weapons to her school on the day of national walkout planned by students protesting against gun violence in the US. Before her arrest, she made a Snapchat post suggesting she hoped that the protesters would be shot and that most of the victims shot would be black. [1] [3]
Early Life
Morgan Roof was born in 2000 to parents Franklin Bennett "Benn" Roof and Paige Mann.
After later remarrying Paige changed her name to Paige Hastings.
Benn Roof and Paige Mann married in November 1998 when Dylann Roof was five years old and their older sister Amber was eleven. Dylann and Amber were both born to Benn Roof's previous wife Amelia "Amy" Cowles. Paige Mann played a role in all three children's life raising them as her own. [1]
The family were middle class while the three children were young with Benn Roof running a successful historic home restoration company he started after previously working as a construction contractor for another company. Benn had owned a car that cost $700 a month, a 3,000-square-foot, custom-built home in the Earlewood neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina and four other properties, including two homes in the Florida Keys. Benn was also the son of a prominent Columbia, SC attorney. Paige, Benn and the children all lived in Columbia. The family also spent a couple of years living in the Florida Keys.
In 2008, Paige filed for divorce citing domestic abuse by Benn Roof around the time the couple returned to South Carolina from the Florida Keys. After Benn's business began to struggle in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis he had become physically and mentally abusive to Paige trying to control her life and beating her. After the divorce, Paige and Morgan moved to Columbia, SC while Dylann lived with his father in a separate home in South Carolina.
Personal Life
In March 2018, after Morgan's arrest a neighbor described her as someone who was not prejudiced like her brother.
Chris Slick, a government communications manager who was a longtime neighbor of the Roofs told The Post and Courier: [1]
"Tragedy has struck this family again.
This is not the Morgan I knew.
She didn't hate people.
She didn't have prejudices like this — in fact, I witnessed the opposite," Slick said.
"I hope that one day, one day she finds peace and seeks forgiveness for what she did today.
I cannot say I wish the same for her brother."
Morgan did not attend any of Roof's trial in 2016 and did not testify.
However, she visited Roof in jail with their father, Benn.
When Morgan said that she wanted to be at her older half-brother's execution, it was unclear if she was joking or trying to be supportive.
She said that she had never been to one.
She also tried to tell Dylann that she loved him, but Roof, for his part, just answered her blankly.
"I love you, Dylann, even if you don't love me back," she said.
He responded: "OK."
"Of course I care… but I’m not gonna let what he did effect (sic) what I do and how I live my life.
I’m happy (because) I deserve to be," Morgan Roof wrote.
"I have an amazing life and friends and support system.
I went through and still have to deal with something unbelievably terrible that nobody understands.
I choose not to let what he did ruin my happiness."
Legal Issues
On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 Morgan Roof was released on a $5,000 bond after she was arrested for bringing weapons and drugs onto the campus of A.C. Flora High School.
Morgan Roof was arrested after an administrator at A.C.
Flora High School alerted a school resource officer about a student having pepper spray and a knife and making a Snapchat post that alarmed the campus. The incident took place on a same day when thousands of students nationwide walked out of schools to protest gun violence in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting in Parkland, Florida. [1]
"Your (sic) walking out for the allowed time of 17min, They are letting you do this, nothing is going to change what tf you think it’s gonna do?
I hope it’s a trap and y’all get shot we know it’s fixing to be nothing but black people walkin out anyway."
Morgan Roof was charged with two counts of carrying weapons on school grounds and simple possession of marijuana. One of the conditions of her $5,000 bond that was set by a judge Wednesday night is that she is not allowed to return to the location of the incident - A.C. Flora High School.