Sept. 30 (UPI) — The man accused of opening fire at a Tennessee church, killing a woman, had a note in his vehicle indicating he may have sought retaliation for the shooting deaths of black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., unnamed law enforcement officials said.
One official told ABC News 25-year-old Emanuel Samson’s note mentioned the shooting by white supremacist Dylann Roof. The shooting in June 2015, killed nine people at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Unnamed sources told The Washington Post that Samson may have been motivated by revenge.
Samson opened fire at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tenn., on Sept. 24. Melanie Smith, 39, was shot dead in the parking lot as she left the church. Six others were injured.
Just before the shooting Sunday, the suspect had been active on his Facebook page. Samson, a U.S. legal resident from Sudan, wrote on his page on Sept. 24 around 11 a.m., “Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to believe as false, is real. & vice versa.”
Samson posted two photos of himself flexing his muscles with the caption, “unrestricted paroxysm.” Paroxysm, by definition, means a sudden attack of violent expression of emotion.
