Three shot dead in Florida hate crime
World
A masked white man fatally shot three people inside a general store
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A masked white man fatally shot three people inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store in a predominately Black neighborhood on Saturday in a deliberate attack after leaving behind racist writings, officials said. The shooter then killed himself.
“He hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told a news conference. “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 the firearms painted with a swastika. He was wearing a bullet-resistant vest.
The two men and one woman who were killed were Black, Waters said. Officials didn’t immediately release the names of the victims or the shooter.
The sheriff said the gunman had left behind writings that led investigators to believe that he committed the shooting because it was the fifth anniversary of when another gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.
The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. at a Dollar General about three-quarters of a mile from Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university. Sheriff Waters said the suspect was seen on campus shortly before the shooting, putting on his vest and a mask.
“I can’t tell you what his mindset was while he was there, but he did go there,” the sheriff said.
