COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A white supremacist has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for illegally buying a gun authorities say he planned to use in an attack similar to the South Carolina church shootings.
U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon says 31-year-old Benjamin McDowell was sentenced Wednesday to 33 months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a weapon.
The FBI says McDowell told an undercover agent he needed a gun for an attack in “the spirit of Dylann Roof.” Roof was sentenced to death last year for a racist shooting that killed nine black worshippers at a Charleston, South Carolina, church.
McDowell couldn’t legally own a gun because of a felony burglary conviction. Authorities say they arrested McDowell after he bought the gun from the undercover agent.
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