A man accused of fatally shooting a woman and wounding six other people at a Tennessee church last month had a note in his car calling white supremacist Dylann Roof ‘less than nothing.’
Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, ended up killing a woman while she was running away and injured six others in the shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on September 24.
Nashville Detective Steve Jolley revealed the note about Roof during a hearing on Monday according to The Tennessean.
Jolley said the note read, ‘Dylann Roof was less than nothing,’ referring to the 2015 Charleston Shooting where Roof killed nine black parishioners.
A note found on the dashboard of Emanuel Kidega Samson’s car, left, referenced Dylann Roof, right, a white supremacist who shot nine people at an historic African-American church in South Carolina. The note referred to Roof as ‘less than nothing,’ police say
The note was found in Sasmson’s car. All of the victims in Nashville were white, but it is still not clear whether Samson, who is black, specifically targeted them based on their race or whether the attack was intended to retaliate against the Charleston attack.
Samson has been charged with criminal homicide although police have yet to determine a motive.
‘He was just very vague and he didn’t really elaborate on anything,’ Jolley said at the hearing.
Jolley said Samson downplayed the role of race to detectives.
Robert Engle is pictured testifying during a preliminary hearing for Samson. Engle, 22, has been hailed as a hero for helping to stop the attack
Judge Allegra Walker is pictured listening to testimony during Samson’s hearing. Samson is being held without bond
Melanie L. Crow, 38, was shot dead in the September 24 shooting. Samson has been charged with her murder
‘I asked him specifically and he said that he didn’t give much thought to race,’ Jolley said. ‘I think he also said the same thing about religion. So he didn’t indicate to me any particular thing for motivation.’
Samson said nothing in the interview about the fact that he had attended the church previously, only commenting that he might have delivered pizzas there, Jolley said.
Samson also told Jolley he was just tired of driving on the day of the shooting, the detective added.
Samson broke down in tears at one point when another detective asked him about hurt and pain, according to the detective.
Samson said he remembered shooting outside the church, but did not recall shooting inside and wasn’t shooting at anyone in particular, Jolley said.
Samson is charged with murder in the September 24 attack at the Nashville church.
Law enforcement gathers around the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on September 24 after the shooting
Jonathan Wing, left, Kristin Neff, right, defense attorneys for Emanuel Kidega Samson, are pictured listening to testimony
The shooting rampage left 38-year-old Melanie L. Crow of Smyrna, Tennessee dead.
The FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville quickly opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting.
The judge also heard testimony from Robert Caleb Engle, the 22-year-old church member hailed as a hero in the attack.
During the shooting, Engle said he twice confronted the gunman, who was wearing a tactical vest and a motorcycle-style mask with a clown smile on it.
Engle said he grabbed the shooter’s arm, at which point he pistol whipped the churchgoer three times in the head.
Later, Engle said he stood up in front of the shooter, whose gun then turned to target him.
Engle said he pushed the gun back onto the shooter and a shot fired, striking the gunman and sending him to the ground.
Engle said his father kicked the gun away, stood on the shooter’s hand and told Engle to go get his gun out of his truck.
Engle came back with his weapon, put his foot on the shooter’s back and stood guard until first responders arrived.
According to police records, Samson struggled to hold a job and had a volatile relationship with a woman that twice involved police this year, and also had expressed suicidal thoughts in June.
Samson’s public records had not listed any criminal charges against him.
Authorities have said Samson came to the United States from Sudan as a child in 1996 and is a U.S. citizen.
Samson had struggled to hold a job and had expressed suicidal thoughts in the months leading up to the shooting, police say
The gunman attended Smyrna High School before studying psychology at Mott Community College. He had lived in Rutherford County and in South Nashville near Burnette Bethel Church of Christ.
He appears to have made a number of cryptic Facebook posts on the morning of the shooting, writing: ‘Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa, B.’
In another, he wrote: ‘Become the creator instead of what’s created. Whatever you say, goes.’
Additional charges are expected. Samson is being held without bond.