A white man armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun carried out a violent rampage on Saturday at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, leaving three Black individuals dead before turning the weapons on himself. Local law enforcement officials have classified the incident as a racially motivated crime.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters addressed the media during a press conference, unequivocally stating, “This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people.” All three victims, consisting of two men and a woman, were identified as Black.
The suspected assailant, characterized by Waters as a white male attired in a tactical vest, has not yet been publicly identified. According to Waters, the perpetrator acted alone and left behind a series of “manifestos” targeted at his parents, the media, and law enforcement. These documents explicitly detailed his deep-seated animosity towards Black individuals. Notably, the weapons used in the attack were reported as a Glock pistol and an “AR-15 style” rifle, the latter of which bore swastika symbols.
Promptly responding to the incident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has initiated a civil rights investigation and is actively pursuing the matter as a hate crime.
