Edward Waters college students had been locked down in their dorms for a number of hours after the taking pictures. No college students or school are believed concerned, the college stated.
The shooter had pushed to Jacksonville from neighbouring Clay County, the place he lived together with his mother and father, the sheriff stated. That home was being searched late on Saturday.
Shortly earlier than the assault, the shooter despatched his father a textual content message telling him to verify his laptop. The father discovered the writings and the household notified 911, however the taking pictures had already begun, Sheriff Waters stated.
“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. There is no place for hate in this community,” the sheriff stated. “I am sickened by this cowardly shooter’s personal ideology.” He stated the investigation will proceed. The FBI was serving to the sheriff’s workplace and stated it had opened a hate crime investigation.
City Mayor Donna Deegan stated she is “heartbroken”.
“This is a community that has suffered again and again. So many times this is where we end up,” Ms Deegan stated. “This is something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, after talking by telephone with the sheriff, known as the shooter a “scumbag” and denounced his racist motivation.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out,” stated Mr DeSantis, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
Dollar General’s company workplace stated in a press release, “We are heartbroken by the senseless act of violence that occurred at our Kings Road store in Jacksonville, Florida today. At this time, supporting our Jacksonville employees and the DG family impacted by this tragedy is a top priority as we work closely with law enforcement.”
The lethal taking pictures occurred inside hours of the conclusion of a commemorative March on Washington in the nation’s capital, the place organisers drew consideration to the rising menace of hate-motivated violence in opposition to people of color.
The assault on a procuring centre in a predominately Black neighbourhood raised reminiscences of previous shootings concentrating on Black Americans, such because the one at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022, and one at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The Buffalo grocery store taking pictures, in explicit, stands aside as one of many deadliest focused assaults on Black people by a white lone gunman in US historical past. Ten people had been killed by the gunman, who has been sentenced to life in jail with out the potential for parole.
