n their own, the calculated murders of reporter Alison Parker and camera operator Adam Ward, and the injury of Vicki Gardner, who they were interviewing, were horrific. The claim of shooter Vester Lee Flanagan II to be avenging the deaths of the innocent African American victims in Charleston makes it even more obscene. Trying to help alleged Charleston shooter Dylann Roof start the race war he so desired is a brutal attempt to violate the legacy of Charleston and an affront to the principle that Americans can, over time and with effort, build an ever-more cohesive, inclusive, multi-racial society. We would say that his actions sully the memory of Charleston’s victims and demean the dignity of their surviving families and friends — except that Mr. Flanagan was of too little account to do either. …show more content…
Flanagan, who authorities said died of a self-inflicted gunshot, seemed to have tried to justify his unjustifiable actions by referencing race, the rambling note he apparently sent to ABC News also praises mass murderers such as the Columbine school shooters and Virginia Tech killer Seung Hui Cho, suggesting that the underlying problem was an armed, attention-seeking, pathological