Charleston Shooting Suspect Dylann Roof Wore Pro-Apartheid, Rhodesia Patches On Jacket

Judging from the patches affixed to the jacket he's wearing in his Facebook profile picture, suspected Charleston church shooter Dylann Storm Roof may have had racial motives for the crime.

In the photo, Roof stares directly at the camera, clad in a black jacket with two flags affixed above his right breast:

The flag on top is an apartheid-era South African flag dating back to 1928, which the country replaced in 1994 after the end of apartheid. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the flag has been used as a symbol of white supremacy since then, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world:

That's the flag of apartheid-era South Africa on Dylann Roof's jacket pic.twitter.com/ex4cG15sVA

Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Jon Swaine","author_url":"https://twitter.com/jonswaine","cache_age":86400,"description":"That's the flag of apartheid-era South Africa on Dylann Roof's jacket pic.twitter.com/ex4cG15sVA Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Jon Swaine on 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That's the flag of apartheid-era South Africa on Dylann Roof's jacket pic.twitter.com/ex4cG15sVA
Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015

The second flag was used to represent the unrecognized state of Rhodesia from 1968 through 1979 , after the former British colony of South Rhodesia fractured and a white minority attempted to take control of the country. An ensuing civil war ended in 1979, the BBC reports , only after a peace agreement led to a new constitution which guaranteed minority rights.

Second flag on Dylann Roof's jacket appears to be that of white-rule Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe pic.twitter.com/js2IpiP8ZN

Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Jon Swaine","author_url":"https://twitter.com/jonswaine","cache_age":86400,"description":"Second flag on Dylann Roof's jacket appears to be that of white-rule Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe pic.twitter.com/js2IpiP8ZN Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_hide_thread":{"label":"Hide previous Tweet in conversation thread","value":true}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Jon Swaine on 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Second flag on Dylann Roof's jacket appears to be that of white-rule Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe pic.twitter.com/js2IpiP8ZN
Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) June 18, 2015

Another photo shared on Facebook Thursday purports to show Roof, 21, sitting on the hood of his car with his legs straddling a license plate for the "Confederate States of America."

These are the only other pics he has on his Facebook
Posted by Raymond Tyrel Carter on Thursday, June 18, 2015

Kimberly Kozny, the mother of one of Roof's childhood friends, told the Associated Press that Roof had a Confederate flag license plate on his car. Authorities said Roof's vehicle had a "very distinctive front license plate," but did not elaborate further.

Roof was arrested Thursday in Shelby, North Carolina.

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