Three black people were killed inside a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, on Saturday, in what officials said was a radically motivated shooting.
Sheriff T.K. Waters of Jacksonville confirmed that a white gunman, in his early 20s carried out the shooting and also killed himself thereafter.
Mr Waters said the gunman, wearing a tactical vest hated black people.
“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Sheriff Waters said at a news conference.
In Jacksonville, the victims were two males and a female, Mr Waters added.
He explained that the gunman left his parents’ house in neighbouring Clay County at around 11:39 a.m. on Saturday and headed toward Jacksonville.
At 1:18 p.m., he texted his father to ask him to check his computer.
He stressed that the gunman had written “several manifestoes,” including one to his parents, in which he detailed his “disgusting ideology of hate.”
“The Clay County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the gunman’s parents at 1:53 p.m. By that time the shooting had already begun in Jacksonville,” said Mr Waters.
Officials posited that the gunman was armed with an AR-15-style rifle that bore swastika markings, including a handgun.
Also, the suspect had been spotted on the campus of Edward Waters University, a historically Black college about half a mile from the Dollar General.
The school had ordered its students to shelter in place amid reports of the shooting even thought it was not yet clear if any intentions of the gunman might have been related to the school.
“But he (gunman) did go there and he did put his vest on and a mask on and then went directly to Dollar General.
“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. Any loss of life is tragic, but the hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds a layer of heartbreak,” Mr Waters posited.
Donna Deegan, mayor of Jacksonville, said the shooting came on the fifth anniversary of a shooting at a gaming tournament in the city.
Ms Deegan revealed that the shooting left three dead, including the gunman.
She added that the gunman on Saturday alluded to that 2018 shooting in his written statements.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating this is for all of us. We’ve seen it too much,” Ms Deegan said.
Jacksonville is a city of 971,000 population and 30 per cent of its residents are Black people.
The rampage on Saturday was the latest high-profile racially motivated attack carried out by a white gunman in the U.S.A shooting last year that targeted Black people left 10 dead at a supermarket in Buffalo.
