Officials in Florida have shared that Saturday’s mass shooting at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, which saw four lose their lives, including the gunman, was a racially motivated attack.
“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference. “He wanted to kill n------. That’s the one and only time I’ll use that word.”
The gunman, who was white, fatally shot three Black people at the store in Jacksonville while wearing a tactical vest and carrying an AR-style rifle and Glock handgun.
Waters shared that they have learned the man left messages for his parents, federal law enforcement officials, and the media, in which he shared his hatred for different races.
The weapons recovered from police at the scene of the attack had swastikas drawn on them in white pen.
“This was, quite frankly, a maniac who decided he wanted to take lives,” Waters said. “He targeted a certain group of people, and that’s Black people. That’s what he said he wanted to kill. And that’s very clear.”
He continued saying that anyone who was Black at the time of the attack “was in danger.”
The shooting is being investigated by local law enforcement officials and the FBI as a hate crime.
The victims have not yet been identified, but police said they were two males and one female. The shooter was described as being in his early 20s.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared his comments on the shooting from Iowa, where he is campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination.
“This shooting, based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated,” the governor said.
He went on to share his condolences for those who lost loved ones, adding that the shooter was a coward.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions,” DeSantis said. “And so he took the coward’s way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms.”
Waters provided more information on the shooter, saying he lived in Clay County with his parents and had interacted with law enforcement in the past, including in 2016 when he was involved in a domestic disturbance call.
Waters added that the shooter was also subject to the Bakers Act in 2017, a law that provides “emergency services and temporary detention for up to 72 hours” when someone requires a mental health examination, and there is evidence pointing to them requiring one.
The shooter left his parents home before noon on Saturday, and just after 1 p.m., he texted his father, telling him to check his computer, the sheriff shared.
At around 1:50 p.m., after seeing what was there, the man’s family called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, but the shooter had already opened fire at the store.
Waters described the three messages the shooter had left, saying they were full of “a disgusting ideology of hate.”
The investigation remains ongoing, but police believe the shooter acted alone.
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