Friend of Dylann Roof pleads guilty in Charleston church shooting case


A friend of alleged Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof pleaded guilty Friday to lying to federal officials and withholding information about the attack. Joey Meek faces up to eight years in prison and $500,000 in fines, The New York Times reports.
He agreed to testify against Roof, who is accused of fatally shooting nine black people in a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June. Roof had claimed to have been planning the attack more than six months in advance, Meek said.
The race-related shooting renewed debate that led South Carolina to remove its Confederate flag from statehouse grounds.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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