RELIGION

Deputies: Man accused in church shooting assaulted

Associated Press
Published | Updated

FILE - This June 18, 2015, file photo, provided by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office shows Dylann Roof. Attorneys for the man charged with killing nine people at a Charleston church are challenging federal prosecutors’ intention to seek the death penalty against him. Lawyers for Roof argue in a motion filed Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, that the death penalty and federal death penalty law are unconstitutional. (Charleston County Sheriff's Office via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon speaks with reporters in North Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016 about an assault on Dylann Roof at the Charleston County Detention Center. Roof, who is awaiting trial in the Charleston church shootings in which nine black church parishioners were killed in 2015, was punched by a black inmate at the jail. Roof was punched in the face and back but checked out and sent back to his cell. Cannon said Roof is not pressing charges. The sheriff said an investigation is underway into how the other inmate was able to get at Roof. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith) (The Associated Press)

In this Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016 photo released by the Charleston County jail, inmate Dwayne Stafford poses for a photo. Stafford attacked Dylann Roof, 22, as he went into the shower around 7:45 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2016, bruising Roof's face and back, according to a police report. Roof has been housed at the Charleston County Detention Center since being brought back from North Carolina a day after the June 17, 2015, slayings of nine parishioners during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church. (Charleston County jail via AP) (The Associated Press)

Deputies say Dylann Roof, charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at a Charleston church, has been assaulted by another inmate at the South Carolina jail where he is being held.

Charleston County Sheriff's Maj. Eric Watson tells The Associated Press that the assault occurred outside Roof's cell Thursday morning.

Watson says the other inmate used his hands, no other weapons, and that the 22-year-old Roof was examined by jail medical personnel and then returned to his cell. The other inmate faces assault charges.

Sheriff Al Cannon is holding an early afternoon news conference to discuss the assault.

Roof has been housed at the Charleston County Detention Center since being brought back from North Carolina a day after the June 17, 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME Church.