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