Dylann Roof’s Chilling Question: ‘Did I Shoot You Yet?’

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Snatching the cell phone of a dead friend off the floor, Polly Sheppard tried to dial 911 as a killer stalked the base­ment of her church.

Hiding beneath a table in the midst of a blood­bath, Sheppard became fum­ble fin­gered, unable to dial the three dig­its on her first try. As nine fel­low wor­shipers lay dead or dying around her, Sheppard tried dial­ing again, this time with success.

“Please answer,” she said in ner­vous tones as the phone rang. “Oh God.”

A dis­patch­er soon picked up the line, ask­ing about her emergency.

“There’s plen­ty peo­ple shot,’ said Sheppard. “He shot the pas­tor. He shot all the men in the church. Please come right away.”

“He’s still in here. I’m afraid. He’s still in here,” con­tin­ued Sheppard. “He’s com­ing. He’s com­ing. He’s com­ing. Please.”

This scene was recalled dur­ing tes­ti­mo­ny by Sheppard on Wednesday dur­ing the fed­er­al tri­al of 22-year-old Dylann Roof, who is accused of the racial­ly moti­vat­ed killing of nine black men and women dur­ing a Bible study at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015.

Sheppard sur­vived the attack, alleged­ly spared by Roof so that she might serve as a wit­ness to his mas­sacre in the his­toric black church in down­town Charleston. She was the final wit­ness for the pros­e­cu­tion in a week-long case in which Roof, charged with 33 fed­er­al counts includ­ing hate crimes, faces the death penal­ty. After Sheppard’s tes­ti­mo­ny the defense rest­ed their case with­out call­ing a sin­gle wit­ness, unable to per­suade a judge to allow the tes­ti­mo­ny of two men­tal-health experts. Roof declined to take the stand in his own defense.

After like­ly hear­ing clos­ing argu­ments from each side on Thursday morn­ing, a jury is expect­ed to begin con­sid­er­ing Roof’s guilt, weigh­ing the pre­vi­ous tes­ti­mo­ny of shoot­ing sur­vivors, police, and foren­sic experts, as well as a taped con­fes­sion and a racist man­i­festo, all of which was capped by Sheppard tes­ti­fy­ing about her near brush with death.

She recalled how tired she felt that evening, hop­ing to go home and eat after a full day vol­un­teer­ing at the church.

But Myra Thompson plead­ed with her to remain for evening Bible study, and Sheppard could not deny her strong-willed friend. Roof also joined the prayer group that evening and was hand­ed a pam­phlet about the day’s les­son as well as a Bible. He sat next to the church’s pas­tor, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney.

Nearly an hour lat­er, as Sheppard stood in prayer with her eyes closed, she heard a loud pop­ping noise. She dis­missed the noise as spark­ing from faulty elec­tri­cal wiring, but soon thought bet­ter when anoth­er friend, Felicia Sanders, screamed that Roof was shoot­ing everyone.

Sanders and her grand­daugh­ter sur­vived by play­ing dead, and Sheppard her­self dove for safe­ty under a table as Roof alleged­ly began his shoot­ing ram­page. Nine oth­ers in the room were not so for­tu­nate to escape Roof. When Sanders’s wound­ed 26-year-old son Tywanza asked Roof why he was doing this, Sheppard heard Roof reply, “I have to. I have to. You’re rap­ing our women and tak­ing over the nation.” Roof then alleged­ly shot Tywanza Sanders again, killing him.

When Roof saw Sheppard alive under the table, he asked if she had been harmed.

“Did I shoot you yet?” Sheppard recalled Roof ask­ing her as he point­ed a gun at her body.

“No,” replied Sheppard.

“I’m not going to,” Roof said. “I need you to tell the story.”

So Sheppard told the sor­did sto­ry Wednesday at the Charleston Federal Courthouse, recall­ing the events that led to the death of her friend Thompson and the eight oth­er vic­tims, ages 26 to 87. During her tes­ti­mo­ny a record­ing of her 911 call was played, in which she described Roof as a “young, 21-year-old white dude” who was still roam­ing the church with a loaded handgun.

Before relat­ing the details of the shoot­ing on Wednesday, Sheppard rem­i­nisced about the vic­tims, many of whom she knew well and none of whom could escape the hail­storm of at least 74 bul­lets alleged­ly fired from Roof’s handgun.

Daniel Simmons, 74, was known as “Dapper Dan” because of his sharp wardrobe that includ­ed mono­grammed shirts, cuf­flinks, and bright­ly pol­ished shoes.

“He used to dress very nice all the time,” Sheppard said of Simmons, who was shot at least six times accord­ing to a med­ical exam­in­er who tes­ti­fied before Sheppard on Wednesday.

Church sex­ton Ethel Lance, 70, who was charged with keep­ing the church clean, always went the extra mile said Sheppard. She made the church smell good and put hand lotion in church restrooms.

“We don’t have that any­more,” said Sheppard, recall­ing the late con­tri­bu­tions of Lance, who was shot at least six times.

Pastor Pinckney was known by Sheppard as “the gen­tle giant” because of his tall stature and com­pas­sion for the elder­ly. Also a South Carolina state sen­a­tor, the 41-year-old Pinckney was shot at least five times.

Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, a 45-year-old high school track and field coach and moth­er of three ado­les­cent chil­dren, was an excel­lent preach­er that drew crowds at church.

“I could see her mak­ing bish­op fast,” Sheppard said of Coleman-Singleton, also shot at least five times.

DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49, who could “sing like an angel” and was a moth­er to four young women and girls, died after being shot at least eight times.

Librarian Cynthia Hurd, 54, who always flashed a smile and led book dis­cus­sions at church, died after being shot at least sev­en times.

Susie Jackson, 87, was a good cook and “always sweet, sweet,” said Sheppard. Jackson died after suf­fer­ing at least 10 gunshots.

Tywanza Sanders, Sheppard said, was a hap­py poet and bar­ber. He, too, was shot at least five times.

And Sheppard’s friend Thompson, 59, who had begged her to stay for Bible study, was some­times charm­ing­ly bossy but also gen­er­ous to the needy. Roof alleged­ly shot her at least eight times.

“Oh Lord have mer­cy,” Sheppard recalled Thompson say­ing as she died on the church base­ment floor.

Roof’s defense attor­ney, renowned death penal­ty lawyer David Bruck, did not cross exam­ine Sheppard, as has been his cus­tom with most of the prosecution’s wit­ness­es. Bruck con­ced­ed ear­ly in the tri­al that he does not quib­ble with the government’s ver­sion of events. He has offered to plead Roof guilty to his alleged crimes in exchange for a life sen­tence, but the gov­ern­ment has declined the offer and opt­ed to press for the death penalty.

Should a jury con­vict Roof of the most seri­ous charges, they will then con­sid­er whether the young man from Eastover, South Carolina — locat­ed about 100 miles from Charleston — should spend his life behind bars or be exe­cut­ed.

Roof has elect­ed to rep­re­sent him­self dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing phase of the tri­al, remov­ing his lawyers despite being told such a strat­e­gy was “unwise” by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Gergel. Roof, who stared blankly ahead dur­ing Sheppard’s entire tes­ti­mo­ny, pre­vi­ous­ly jet­ti­soned his lawyers dur­ing jury selec­tion only to recall them before open­ing arguments.

Before jury selec­tion he was deemed com­pe­tent to stand tri­al fol­low­ing a men­tal eval­u­a­tion. http://​www​.thedai​ly​beast​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​2​0​1​6​/​1​2​/​1​4​/​d​y​l​a​n​n​-​r​o​o​f​-​s​-​c​h​i​l​l​i​n​g​-​q​u​e​s​t​i​o​n​-​d​i​d​-​i​-​s​h​o​o​t​-​y​o​u​-​y​e​t​.​h​tml