The woman who helped locate Dylann Roof, the man charged with killing nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, is crediting “divine intervention” for her role in his capture.
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As Yahoo! News reports, Debbie Dills was late for work and waiting at a stoplight when the car next to her caught her eye. Dills, who works as a florist in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, had been disturbed by the news of the shooting.
A churchgoer active in the music ministry, Dills says she was singing hymns and praying for the victims as she drove to work. However, the more she looked at the car beside her — a black Hyundai with South Carolina plates — the more she felt like it seemed familiar. Then she noticed the driver and her heart began racing.
“At first I thought, nah, it couldn’t be,” she told the Associated Press. “I didn’t want to overreact.”
Dylann Roof’s picture had been shared widely during the manhunt, and Dills was persuaded that she recognized the thin, white man with a bowl cut. She quickly called her boss, Todd Frady, to ask what she should do. Frady contacted the police while Dills caught up with the departing Hyundai. She followed Roof to Shelby, North Carolina, passing on the license plate number to the authorities who pulled him over soon after.
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Dills admits that she was frightened when the police caught up with Roof and worried that the man might start shooting while being taken into custody. Despite the fact that her help was critical to catching Roof, Dills denies that she is a hero.
“Make no mistake about it, I am not the hero here — God is the hero,” she said. “People can believe that or not. He showed up here in Shelby, North Carolina.”
Dills says she believes God put her in the right place at the right time to help bring Roof to justice.
