FBI Says Processing Error Let Church Shooter Buy Gun

A background check was underway but took too long to stop the sale of the gun Dylann Roof used in Charleston.

James Comey, U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee as director of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 9, 2013.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Del Quentin Wilber

July 10, 2015 at 4:54 PM UTC

Updated on

July 10, 2015 at 7:15 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The South Carolina man accused of killing nine people at a black church in Charleston in June should never have been allowed to buy a gun and only was able to purchase one because of paperwork errors, the FBI director said.

James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Friday that the FBI examiner conducting a background check for the handgun purchase didn’t have all the documents from an earlier drug arrest of Dylann Storm Roof. If the examiner had that information, the bureau would have notified the firearms dealer that Roof was prohibited from buying the weapon, Comey said.