Black people were targeted by a ‘white man in his early 20s’ in a store in Jacksonville.
Three black people have been killed in a “racially motivated” shooting in Florida.
Two men and one woman were shot dead in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville by a man in his early 20s in what the mayor has called a “hate-filled crime”.
Jacksonville’s sheriff said the suspect, an unidentified white man in his 20s, “targeted black people” in the shooting before killing himself.
“Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people,” Sheriff T K Waters said at a news conference.
Sheriff Waters said the gunman used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 style rifle emblazoned with swastikas during his killing spree which occurred shortly before 2pm local time.
The gunman reportedly left several manifestos littered with racial epithets detailing his hatred of black people.
Sheriff Waters added there was no indication that the attacker was part of a larger group.
He had driven from neighbouring Clay County and had sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer.
The father found the writings and the family called 911, but the shooting had already begun.
Earlier, Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT “there are a number of fatalities” inside the store but did not give a precise number.
Numerous police officers were in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically black university.
“This is unacceptable,” Ms Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”
Jacksonville City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman told the station the gunman is dead. She did not give further details.
“My heart is heavy. I am tired of all of the shootings,” she said.
Sherri Onks, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FBI office, said federal officials had opened a civil rights investigation and would pursue the incident as a hate crime.
“Hate crimes are always and will always remain a top priority for the FBI because they are not only an attack on a victim, they’re also meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community,” Ms Onks said.
Source:https://news.sky.com/story/three-people-killed-in-racially-motivated-shooting-in-florida-12948644