Is state sanctioned murder justice or revenge? Killing people who pose no imminent threat of physical harm to others is fucking wrong. It is our job to combat any ideological or philosophical harms that he can help pervade. We shouldn't be rejoicing killing a young man just to make a point to other people. I feel like he is completely misguided. He did something fucking awful and ended the lives of many people. How the fuck did he get there? 22 is not that old. I work with at-risk and emotionally disfunctional/ disturbed youth. I hear them say things that are downright wrong. Do I feel they are at fault? No. They are vessels through which other misguided people channel their hatred and ignorance. The amount of people on here openly cheering the killing of this young man is frankly, disturbing.

Here is a portion from his Wikipedia page detailing his upbringing. I hope people can see that this certainly plays into his ability to make rational and intelligent decisions:

Roof was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Franklin Bennett (called Bennett) Roof, a carpenter, and Amelia "Amy" Cowles, a bartender. They had divorced but were temporarily reconciled at the time of his birth. When Roof was five,[5] his father married Paige Mann (née Hastings) in November 1999, but they divorced after ten years of marriage. Bennett Roof was allegedly verbally and physically abusive towards Mann.[6][7][8][9][10] The family mostly lived in South Carolina, though from about 2005 to 2008, they temporarily moved to the Florida Keys. There is no information about Roof attending local schools there.[11]

According to a 2009 affidavit filed for Mann's divorce, Roof exhibited "obsessive compulsive behavior" as he grew up, obsessing over germs and insisting on having his hair cut in a certain style.[7] When he was in middle school, he exhibited an interest in smoking marijuana, having once been caught spending money on it.[5]

In nine years, Roof attended at least seven schools in two South Carolina counties, including White Knoll High School in Lexington, in which he repeated the ninth grade, finishing it in another school. He apparently stopped attending classes in 2010 and, according to his family, dropped out of school and spent his time alternating between playing video games and taking drugs, such as Suboxone.[5][6][7][12][13][14] He was on the rolls of a local Evangelical Lutheran congregation.[15]

Prior to the attack, Roof was living alternately in Bennett's and Cowles' homes in downtown Columbia and Hopkins, respectively,[8][16][17] but was mostly raised by his stepmother Mann.[7] For several weeks preceding the attack, Roof had also been occasionally living in the home of an old friend from middle school and the latter's mother, two brothers, and girlfriend.[9][17][18] He allegedly spent his time using drugs and getting drunk.[17] He had been working as a landscaper at the behest of his father, but quit the job prior to the shooting.[5]

His maternal uncle, Carson Cowles, said that he expressed concern about the social withdrawal of his then-nineteen-year-old nephew, because "he still didn't have a job, a driver's license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time."[19] Cowles said he tried to mentor Roof, but was rejected and they drifted apart.[19] According to Mann, Roof cut off all contact with her after her divorce from his father. When his sister planned to be married, he did not respond to her invitation to the event.[9][10]

A former high school classmate said that despite Roof's racist comments, some of his friends in school were black.[13]