White gunman kills three Black people in ‘hate crime’ then kills himself

MIAMI: A masked white man fatally shot three Black people inside a Jacksonville, Florida,  store in a predominately African-American neighbourhood, in an attack where he used a gun painted with a swastika, officials said.

The shooter, who had also posted racist writings, then killed himself, the Associated Press reported.

President Joe Biden and Attorney-General Merrick Garland were briefed on the new Florida shooting.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told a news conference that the attack that left two men and one woman dead was definitely “racially motivated” in a hate crime.

“He hated Black people,” Sheriff Waters said after reviewing the man’s writings, which were sent to federal law enforcement officials and at least one media outlet shortly before the attack. He said the gunman acted alone and “there is absolutely no evidence the shooter is part of any larger group”.

Sheriff Waters said the shooter, who was in his 20s, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with at least one of them painted with a swastika.

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He was wearing a bullet-resistant vest.

Sheriff  Waters said the shooter had once been involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident and was once involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination. He did not provide further details on those incidents.

Officials didn’t immediately release the names of the victims or the shooter.

The shooting happened just before 2pm. at a Dollar General about three-quarters of a mile from Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.

The deadly shooting took place within hours of the conclusion of a commemorative March on Washington in the nation’s capital, where organisers drew attention to the growing threat of hate-motivated violence against people of colour.

The attack on a shopping centre in a predominately Black neighbourhood raised memories of past shootings targeting Black Americans, such as the one at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022, and one at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.

The Buffalo supermarket shooting, in particular, stands apart as one of the deadliest targeted attacks on Black people by a white lone gunman in US history. Ten people were killed by the gunman, who has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.