Four people have been killed in a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida.
A 21-year-old man shot and killed three people before turning the gun on himself at a general store in Jacksonville, Florida.
Authorities confirmed this shooting was ‘racially motivated.’
“Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Sheriff TK Waters said at a news conference.
Local law enforcement also confirmed on Sunday that the shooter bought his guns legally and had no criminal history.
However, Waters said the man had ‘racist motives’ and a history of violence, and that at least one of his weapons was painted with a swastika.
The shooter was involved in a domestic violence incident in 2016 as well as being involuntary committed to a psychiatric hospital on one occasion.
The sheriff said that writings from the shooter suggested he had linked the attack to the fifth anniversary of a similar shooting in Jacksonville, where two people were killed before the gunman also turned the gun on himself.
The shooter lived in Clay County with his parents and had sent his father a text message before the attack, telling him to ‘check his computer’. His father then called 911, but the shooting had already begun.
The shooting took place at the Dollar General store just before 2:00pm, near the Edward Waters University – a small university which is historically significant for the Black community.
The university said in a statement that one of its security officers saw the man near the university’s library. The officer asked the man to identify himself and when he refused, asked him to leave.
Jacksonville mayor Donna Deegan told television station WJXT: “This is unacceptable… One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”
“This is something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community.”
