Son of Emanuel AME shooting victim reacts to Dylann Roof’s decision to appeal conviction

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The son of one of the Emanuel AME shooting victims, who has been in the public eye since the June 2015 massacre, reacted Wednesday morning to the news that convicted shooter Dylann Roof is going to appeal his death sentence.

“Forgiveness was granted and justice was served,” Chris Singleton, the son of Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, wrote on Twitter. “Let’s keep it that way!”

Singleton also used the hashtag “Can’t let moms down."

Chris starred at Goose Creek High School before playing for Charleston Southern and was eventually drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

He was cut by the team in March of 2019, but was then named as the Director of Community Outreach by the Charleston Riverdogs last April.

Since then, he has continued to travel around the country giving inspirational and motivational speeches.

On Tuesday, Roof argued that he was suffering from schizophrenia and other psychological disorders when he represented himself at his capital trial.

In a legal brief filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Roof’s lawyers said that when a judge allowed him to represent himself during the penalty phase of his federal trial, he was a 22-year-old ninth-grade dropout “who believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war.”

Roof is currently on death row at the penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

He received a new federal public defender earlier this month.

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