At least three people — all black — are dead after an armed suspect entered a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida and started shooting at people in what authorities called a “racially motivated” attack Saturday.
Officials at the scene noted that the suspect later shot himself and was barricaded in the store after opening fire and leaving multiple dead, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said.
State Senator Tracie Davis also confirmed to the US media that the suspect is dead.
Sheriff TK Waters said: “The shooter, a white male in his early 20s, was outfitted with a tactical vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun when he started firing inside a Dollar General discount store.”
“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,” the sheriff said.
“There were two male victims and one female victim,” according to the sheriff.
“Manifestos discovered by the gunman’s family shortly before the attack detail the shooter’s disgusting ideology of hate,” he told reporters during a news conference.
The FBI would investigate the shooting as a hate crime, said Sherri Onks, the bureau’s special agent for Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson Eric Prosswimmer told CNN the department was on standby to treat victims.
Deegan earlier told local broadcaster WJXT: “There are a number of fatalities inside the store.”
Officials were not able to provide an exact number of people killed in the Jacksonville shooting.
A number of police officers are in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.
Deegan told the media: “This is unacceptable. One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”
The shooting was the latest in a spate of gun violence this weekend in the United States, following deadly outbursts in Boston, Chicago and Oklahoma.__The News
