Police in Jacksonville, Florida report that on Saturday afternoon (August 26), a gunman killed three Black people in a racially charged shooting at a Jacksonville Dollar General before turning the gun on himself, just blocks away from Edward Waters University, an HBCU (Historically Black College and University).
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Police say the racially motivated Jacksonville shooting is just one of several weekend shootings that has again left the country in awe. During a news conference early Saturday evening, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said, “This shooting was racially motivated and [the gunman] hated Black people.”
Sheriff Waters went on to describe the shooter as a white man in his 20s. He said the gunman, who police believe acted alone, entered into the Dollar General store around 1 p.m. EST, armed with an AR-15 style rifle, a handgun, and a bulletproof vest.
Sheriff Waters said that the suspect turned the gun on himself after killing three Black people, and that he left behind what the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office describes as three manifestos; in which the gunman outlined his “disgusting ideology of hate,” and his motive in the attack.
Prior to the attack, the gunman is said have been seen on the Edward Waters University campus moments before he headed to the convenience store. No one was injured on the HBCU campus. Sheriff Waters said, “He took that opportunity to put his bulletproof vest on outside and to put his mask on outside and then proceed to the store where he committed this horrible act.”
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Waters also confirmed that all three victims were Black, including two men and one woman. At the time of publishing this article, the names of the three deceased have not yet been made public; in addition to the suspect who turned a gun on himself. The Sheriff also showed the media photos of the weapons used by the gunman, which showed swastikas drawn on one of the guns in white paint.
Jacksonville authorities say that they have been in contact with the gunman’s parents and he had previously been evaluated for a mental health crisis. In 2017, police received a call about the suspect and they acted under the Baker Act, which allows people to be involuntarily detained and put under examination for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis.
Speaking on the racially charged Jacksonville shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, spoke out and called the shooter a “scumbag,” while denouncing his racist motivation. DeSantis added, “This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out.”
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