Jacksonville shooting a racially-motivated attack, Florida sheriff says

Locals talk with Jacksonville police after three people were killed in a Dollar Store shooting. Photo / AP

WARNING: This story discusses shooting and violence.

The Jacksonville, Florida, sheriff says that a racially motivated shooter fatally shot three people inside a Dollar General Store on Saturday before killing himself.

“Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference.

Multiple people were fatally shot on Saturday inside a Dollar General store, Jackonville’s mayor Donna Deegan said. A city council member added that the shooter was dead.

Deegan told a local TV station there were “a number of fatalities” inside the store but didn’t give a precise number. Police officers were in the area near Edward Waters University, a small, historically Black university.

“This is unacceptable,” Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much, but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”

Police officers at the scene of a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida. Photo / AP

Jacksonville City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman told the station the shooter was dead. She did not give details.

“My heart is heavy. I am tired of all of the shootings,” she said.

Edward Waters students were being kept in their dorms, the university said in a statement. No students or faculty were believed to be involved, it said.

Penny Jones told the Associated Press that she worked at the store until a few months ago. She lives a few blocks away in the predominantly Black neighbourhood.

“I’m just waiting to hear about my [former] co-workers,” she said. Jones added that she was “feeling awkward, scared”.

A gunman shot at least three people in the store before turning the weapon on himself. Photo / AP

“I don’t want to leave my house. I’m thinking, do I want to go back to the store? Is this going to start happening more frequently? I don’t know what the cause of it is. I’m confused,” she said.

The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.