'Manifesto' found online said to be written by accused Charleston gunman

CHARLESTON, S.C., June 20 (UPI) -- A website registered to the name Dylann Roof, the name of the suspect accused of killing nine people in a Charleston church this week, contains what some news media have referred to as a "manifesto" that discloses his motives for the shooting rampage.

The writings, purportedly by Roof, were discovered on an obscure segregationist website called lastrhodesian.com, Saturday. It contains several photographs of the suspect holding a confederate flag and a handgun.

Authorities are aware of the site and its writings, CBS News reported, and are looking into any possible clues there that may shine some light on Thursday night's massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Nine people died after being shot at the church, following a meeting which investigators and witnesses say was attended by Roof for about an hour. Near the end of the service, Roof allegedly stood and opened fire.

"I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country," the author, purported to be Roof, wrote in a text file uploaded to the website, which advocates racial extremism.

The author also writes that he was not raised in a racist home, but rather embraced racial extremism as a result of Trayvon Martin's killing in Florida in February 2012. In that case, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch leader, shot the black 17-year-old after following him inside a gated residential community near Orlando. Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted of murder, but the case is viewed by many as being racially motivated.

Among those killed Thursday was South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pickney, 41, who was also a pastor at the church. The other victims were identified as Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; and the reverends DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Sharonda Singleton, 45; and Daniel Simmons Sr., 74.

President Barack Obama, who said he has personal ties to the historical Emanuel AME Church, decried the shooting and hinted that lax gun control laws played a factor in the incident.

"No one [is] doing anything but talking on the internet," the manifesto's author wrote. "Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."

"White people on average don't think about race in their daily lives. And this is our problem. We need to and have to," the text continued.

The Department of Justice is investigating the shooting as a hate crime, and considering the possibility of treating it as an act of domestic terrorism. Roof is being held on $1 million bond.