Friend of South Carolina church shooter gets prison time for lying

The South Carolina man who admitted he lied to the FBI and concealed knowledge of the massacre carried out by his friend Dylann Roof at a historically black church was sentenced on Tuesday to 27 months in federal prison.

Joey Meek told authorities his childhood friend Roof revealed his plot during an alcohol and drug-fueled night about a week before the June 2015 shooting. Roof said he wanted to start a race war by killing black people at a church, court records show.

But after Roof opened fire during a Bible study meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, slaying nine parishioners, Meek did not immediately report what he knew, prosecutors said.

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Andrew Hay)