A former FBI agent says keeping watch on someone like the suspect in the South Carolina shooting is "absolutely impossible" for law enforcement to do before the crime is committed.
Ron Hosko tells host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV's "The Hard Line" that authorities just can't keep tabs on every potential perpetrator.
"It is absolutely impossible. I know my former organization tries to look at these factors, try to prioritize subjects," Hosko says. "They're doing that on a daily basis, but somebody could have that call to action in moments. Much like we saw in Boston recently, and that is difficult to predict and difficult to cover."
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Dylann Roof, 21, is suspected of killing nine people in a Bible study group Wednesday night in a Charleston, S.C., church. Roof is white and all of the victims were black; early reports point to the act as
being a hate crime.
Berliner asks Hosko if authorities will look into the 19 hate groups, a list that includes the Klu Klux Klan, that are active in South Carolina during the investigation.
"The FBI and their state and local partners there will certainly be looking for a nexus to known hate groups or previously unknown hate groups in organizations and people to understand the drivers here, the motives here," Hosko says.
"You immediately think, regardless of the type of attack that the FBI gets involved with, you immediately have to think this is not a single isolated incident, that it might be tied to other related incidents that are yet to come, so they will always be vigilant to that and will be looking for it."
Overall, Hosko says, a mass shooting like this one "is a sign of our times, it's a sign of our country."
Roof fled to North Carolina sometime after the shooting but
was captured Thursday morning by authorities.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who
may join the crowded field of Republicans in the race for president,
urged candidates to go to church to support the Charleston community.
"If there's an opportunity, if they happen to be there and they want to go in a worship service, I think that'd be appropriate, if they want to go support the community," Jindal said.
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