U.S. black church massacre investigated as domestic terrorism

The black church massacre in Charleston, South Carolina where nine black churchgoers were killed by a white gunman, was being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department as a potential act of domestic terrorism, the federal agency said on Friday.

"The department is looking at this crime from all angles, including as a hate crime and as an act of domestic terrorism," Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said in a statement.

It was the first time the Justice Department indicated that it would investigate the case as a possible act of domestic terrorism. It had previously announced that a hate crime investigation into the case was being carried out.

Earlier on Friday, suspected shooter Dylann Roof was charged with nine accounts of murder for the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night.

Although Roof's motive was still under investigation, people familiar with him said he was obsessed with the idea of segregation.

"He said he wanted to start a civil war. He said he was going to do something like that," Roof's roommate Dalton Tyler told the U.S. TV network ABC News in an interview.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group dedicated to fighting racial hatred, factors such as an ailing economy, an influx of nonwhite immigrants and the election of the nation's first black president have in recent years fueled racial hatred.

The group said that since 2000, the number of hate groups across the country has increased by 30 percent to 784 in 2015.

Data offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that the blacks are more likely to be victimized in hate crimes compared with other race and religion groups, with more than 50 out of one million black citizens becoming the victim of a racially-motivated hate crime in 2012. Endite