South Carolina shooting suspect Dylann Roof should not have been able to purchase the gun used in the massacre, the FBI reportedly said Friday.
FBI Director James B. Comey said that Roof was able to obtain the weapon, which was used to kill nine African-Americans in a racially motivated attack on a historically black church in Charleston, because of shortcomings in the screening system for gun purchases, The Washington Post reported.
“This case rips all of our hearts out, but the thought that an error on our part is connected to a gun this person used to slaughter these people is very painful to us,” he said, according to the D.C. paper.
He says an FBI examiner who looked into Roof's background when he tried to purchase a gun never saw an arrest report in which police say he admitted to possessing drugs. The arresting agency was listed erroneously on the rap sheet that the examiner reviewed.
Under FBI rules, that admission should have disqualified Roof from being able to buy a gun.
The transaction went through after three days because the examiner didn't have enough information to authorize or deny it
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