White Supremacist Dylann Roof, Who Murdered Nine Black Churchgoers In 2015, Has Staged a Hunger Strike To Protest Unfair Treatment In Prison

In letters to The Associated Press, mass murderer Dylann Roof revealed that he staged a hunger strike this month to protest the unfair treatment he has been subjected to while on federal death row.

In a letter dated February 13th, the 25-year-old white supremacist who brutally murdered nine black church members during a Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, claims he has been “targeted by staff,” “verbally harassed and abused without cause” and “treated disproportionately harsh.” He wrote that prison staff in Terre Haute, Indiana, feel justified in their conduct “since I am hated by the general public.” Roof revealed in his letter to the AP that the purpose of the hunger strike was to protest his mistreatment, which included allegedly being denied access to the law library and access to a copy machine to file legal papers. He also indicated that he was already several days into a hunger strike. However, in a follow-up letter, he revealed that his protest abruptly ended a day later after officers forcibly tried to take his blood and insert an IV into his arm, causing him to pass out briefly.

“I feel confident I could have gone much, much longer without food,” Roof wrote in the follow-up letter dated February 16th. “It’s just not worth being murdered over.”

According to a source close to the incident, Roof is no longer on the hunger strike as of this week.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons said the agency had no comment on Roof’s allegations, citing privacy concerns.