A masked white man fatally shot three Black people inside a store in a predominantly African-American neighbourhood in Jacksonville, Florida, before killing himself, officials say.
Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told a news conference the attack that left two men and one woman dead was definitely “racially motivated."
“He hated Black people,” Waters said after reviewing the man's writings, which were sent to federal law enforcement officials and at least one media outlet shortly before the attack. He added that the gunman acted alone and “there is absolutely no evidence the shooter is part of any larger group.”
Waters said the shooter, who was in his 20s, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with at least one of them painted with a swastika. He was wearing a bullet-resistant vest. He said the shooter had once been involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident and was once involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination.
The sheriff said the gunman's writings suggest he linked his action to the fifth anniversary of another shooting attack in Jacksonville, that claimed two lives before the shooter killed himself.
The shooting happened just before 2 pm at a Dollar General store not far from the Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.
In a statement, the university said that one of its security officers saw the man near the school's library and asked him to identify himself. When he refused, he was asked to leave. The man returned to his car and was seen putting on his vest and mask before leaving.
The shooter had driven to Jacksonville from Clay County, where he lived with his parents, the sheriff said.
Shortly before the attack, the shooter sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer. The father found the writings and the family notified 911, but the shooting had already begun, Sheriff Waters said.
“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. There is no place for hate in this community," the sheriff said. “I am sickened by this cowardly shooter's personal ideology.”
Mayor Donna Deegan said she is “heartbroken.”
"This is something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community," Deegan said.
Governor Ron DeSantis, called the shooter a “scumbag" and denounced his racist motivation.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward's way out,” said DeSantis, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
Both President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland were briefed on the shooting, officials said.
The attack will undoubtedly evoke fears of past shootings targeting Black Americans, like the one at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, which killed 10 people, and one at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
It took place within hours of the conclusion of a commemorative March on Washington in the nation’s capital, where organisers drew attention to the growing threat of hate-motivated violence against people of colour.
