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S.C. church shooter could buy gun because of background check mix-up

Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015. (Reuters/Jason Miczek)
Dylann Storm Roof appears by closed-circuit television at his bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, June 19, 2015, in a still image from video. (Reuters/Pool)
Dylann Storm Roof appears by closed-circuit television at his bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, June 19, 2015, in a still image from video. (Reuters/Pool)
Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof, 21, into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015. Roof, 21, is accused of killing nine people at a Bible-study meeting in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. (Reuters/Jason Miczek)
Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina, June 18, 2015. Roof, a 21-year-old with a criminal record, is accused of killing nine people at a Bible-study meeting in a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. (Reuters/Jason Miczek)
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REUTERS
July 10, 2015 - 9:37 am
 

WASHINGTON — The Charleston shooting suspect should not have been allowed to buy a gun, but the 21-year-old charged in a church shooting rampage was able to purchase one in April because of a mix-up in his background check, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Friday.

The examiner of Dylann Roof’s federal background check did not see a police report in which Roof admitted to drug possession, which would have barred him from buying the weapon, Comey said.

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.

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