A white manly marksman wearing politic gear killed three people at a Florida Dollar General store in a “ racially motivated ” attack using an AR-15-style assault rifle and Glock handgun covered in Nazi swastikas say police.
The shocking incident in Jacksonville on Saturday is now being delved as a racially motivated hate crime by the FBI and original law enforcement.
The marksman, who has not been linked, “ abominated Black people, ” Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told a press conference.
The suspect was described by Waters as a white joker in his early 20s and the sheriff said that all three victims- two men and a woman- were Black.
“ He targeted a certain group of people, and that’s Black people, ” Sheriff Waters said.
Sheriff Waters said that the marksman acted alone and had published “ several manifestos ” detailing his abomination for Black people.
The suspected shooter, who failed from a tone- foisted projectile crack, was originally seen near the library on the lot of the megacity’s Edward Waters University but security guards tried to take him into guardianship and he escaped.
The sheriff said that at1.18 pm EST, the shooter told his father to check his computer, and by1.53 pm his family called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Waters said.
Edward Waters University is a historically Black private Christian university in the megacity, which was innovated in 1866 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
FOX30 reported that the marksman was wearing a mask, politic vest and gloves.
Law enforcement, including a SWAT platoon, were called to the scene in the northwest part of the megacity at around 1 pm.
“ This is inferior. One firing is too important but these mass blowups are really hard to take, ” Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT.
And she added “ It’s a heartbreaking thing for our community. It’s awful and it has happed in this community way too numerous times. ”
she latterly told journalists that she was “ agonized ” by the incident and it was “ a community that had suffered time and time again. ”
“ This type of hate, you see the swastikas on the gun, we must do everything we can to inhibit this type of hate. ”
State Representative Angie Nixon, who represents the District 13 neighbourhood called the incident “ woeful. ”
“ These are effects that we want to try to avoid by making sure that our communities are completely resourced, making sure we ’re creating a climate of love and not pressure, ” Ms Nixon told WJXT.
Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman said she was devastated to see yet further violence unleashed.
“ I ’m tired of seeing all the blowups. The people in this community are hurting, ” she said.
The firing took place near the megacity’s Edward Waters University lot, which issued a lot-wide stay- in- place order.
JSO Sheriff TK Waters called the incident “ an outlier ” saying that “ it does n’t represent who we’re as a megacity or who we’re as a people. ”
And he added “ We live together as a community and we fight together as a community. ”
The FBI says it’ll probe the incident as a hate crime and has opened a civil rights disquisition.
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