The Justice Department will investigate the motivations and facts behind the shooting that left nine dead at a historic black church in South Carolina.
Reuters reports that Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday that the department has opened a hate-crime investigation.
“We will now be looking at all of the facts, all of the motivations all the things that led this individual – if he is in fact the shooter – to commit this crime. And we will determine which is the best ways in which to prosecute the case,” Lynch told reporters at a news conference in Washington.
It has not yet been determined whether the case will be a state or federal one.
The suspect, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, was arrested and accused in the shooting.
