Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store mass shooting leaves four dead including white gunman wearing ballistic vest who targeted black victims in racially motivated hate crime.
A stand-off at Florida, Dollar General store, Saturday afternoon, led to four people dead, including a gunman wearing a ballistic vest.
The shooting happened at Kings Road and Canal Street in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday afternoon, according to FOX News. The shooting happened inside and outside the store, with the gunman first entering the Dollar General store fitted with a tactical vest.
A press conference in the immediate aftermath described the gunman as a ‘white’ male in his early 20’s who specifically targeting black store patrons. The gunman died following the arrival of a SWAT team at the premise. The three victims who were not identified were described as being black.
Jacksonville shooter wanted to kill ‘n******’ Manifesto left behind
Multiple fatalities from a #shooting in #Jacksonville, #Florida, Saturday afternoon, Mayor Donna Deegan told CNN. The shooter was barricaded inside a Dollar General store on Kings Road. It was not immediately clear if victims were shot inside the store or at a different location. https://t.co/r8lqfijC7f
— Brian Pia (@brianpia) August 26, 2023
HAPPENING NOW: Officials give an update on a deadly shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida. https://t.co/LOagz5OgDr https://t.co/XuQLqVdJr0
— ABC News (@ABC) August 26, 2023
‘He wanted to kill n——.’
Jacksonville County Sheriff T.K. Waters during the press conference said the shooting was racially motivated.
‘This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,’ the sheriff, who is black said. ‘He wanted to kill n——.’
The suspected shooter sent a manifesto to law enforcement, media, and his parents, Waters said. It detailed that racial hatred, he said.
The man used what the sheriff described as an AR-style rifle, or a long gun in the style of the AR-15, and a handgun.
‘This is unacceptable,’ Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT.‘One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.’
Numerous police officers descended on the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.
Edward Waters University students were kept in their dorms during the active shooting, the school said in a statement. No students or faculty were believed to be involved, the school said.
Local reports told of the suspect wearing a ballistic vest and barricaded themselves inside the store. Follow up reports told of four people dead at a mass shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida.
Saturday’s shooting comes five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.
Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border.
