Happily he fell short of meeting his quota by a considerable margin, although Emanuel Samson, whose trial began Monday, managed to kill one parishioner and wound seven others when he opened fire on a Nashville church in 2017.
According to the New York Post:
… Samson, who is black, was allegedly looking to pass Dylann Roof’s 2015 death toll in South Carolina, which was nine.
“The blood that 10 of your kind will shed is that of the color upon the RBG flag in terms of vengeance,” Samson wrote in a note left inside his truck before the shooting, according to prosecutors.
The “RBG,” or pan-African, flag is the familiar tricolor with bands of red, black, and green. According to prosecutors, Samson’s intention was to kill only white church members and no one else as some sort of perverse payback for Roof’s victims, all of whom were black.
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Samson’s attorney, Jennifer Thompson, is attempting to put a more sympathetic — more “human” — spin on the case, remarking in her opening statement, “What this case is about is a man who was very sad, very suicidal, and he was looking to die that day.” The tactical vest he wore at the time of the shooting, which had a clown smile on it, seems to send a different message.
Samson faces 43 charges in connection with the shooting, including civil rights intimidation and murder.
