On Tuesday, a chapter in South Carolina history began winding down when Dylann Roof was formally indicted on 13 charges related to the Charleston church shooting at the same time that the South Carolina Senate entered the final throes of voting over the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.
The Senate body voted 36-3 to approve the measure on a third and final reading, which reaffirmed a previous successful vote on Monday. Now that the Senate has voted, the removal bill is moving to be voted on in the House.
The details of the bill outline the removal of the flag from the Confederate Monument on the Statehouse lawn to the Confederate Relic Room museum.
During the bill's time in the Senate, three amendments were proposed — to allow a public vote on a non-binding resolution, to fly the First National Flag of the Confederacy (better known as the "Stars and Bars") rather than the Confederate battle flag at the monument and to fly the battle flag on Confederate Memorial Day.
All three amendments were defeated.
Clear of the Senate, the bill is being passed to the South Carolina House of Representatives where it is also expected to pass based on polling done by the Post and Courier.
The option for lawmakers to introduce additional ammendments is still available, and if utilized, the bill would be sent back to the Senate for another vote.
However, if the bill is approved by the House, it would then be sent to Governor Nikki Haley, who has voiced her overwhelming support for the bill, in the wake of the Charleston church shooting.
It seemed only fitting then that on the same morning, Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced that Roof has been indicted and charged with nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
On June 17, authorities say that Roof, a 21-year-old Lexington, South Carolina native, entered the Mother Emmanuel Church, a historic African-American congregation, and sat in on a Bible study taking place.
After about an hour, Roof opened fire on the churchgoers.
Roof was arrested the following day in North Carolina and was extradited back to South Carolina to face punishment there.
Survivor reports indicated that Roof had been using racist language, and authorities have been classifying the shooting as a hate crime.
Following the shooting, pictures of Roof on social media along with an online manifesto believed to be written by Roof surfaced reinforcing authorities beliefs that the attack was racially-motivated.
On the website in question, "The Last Rhodesian," the writer explained the choosing an unnamed location in Charleston.
"I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to whites in the country," the writer states on the website.
Among the evidence included pictures of Roof wrapped in the Confederate battle flag, as well as posing in a jacket with patches depicting the flags of the Apartheid-era governments of South Africa and Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe).
The ties between the shooting and the vote for the removal of the Confederate flag were ultimately connected by the perceived racist connotations of the flag that were amplified exponentially by its prominence in Roof's motivation to kill.