Abhijay Raj Vaish, Pune
Three black people were killed by a man in Jacksonville, Florida, at a Dollar General store on August 26. The man responsible for the shooting has been described as a white man in his late 20s who also shot and killed himself later.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters confirmed in a news conference that the shooting was racially motivated. The weapons used by the shooter included a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with a Swastika being painted on one of the guns with white paint.
The victims were two men and a woman. The alleged reason for the shooting is believed to be the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting that happened at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people.
The gunman had sent his father a text message before the attack, instructing him to check his computer. The father found what the sheriff claimed to be ‘manifestos’ which shed light on his racial ideology, and immediately contacted the police. However, the shooting had already begun.
The shooting took place near Edward Waters University, a historically black school, where the shooter was seen before approaching the site of the attack. No other person on the campus was harmed.
The United States has been subject to at least 470 mass shootings in 2023, with the third such incident being reported in the span of the last two days. The Gunman in this case was also detained under the Baker Act in 2017, which prohibits the purchase of firearms for anyone detained under the act.
Special Agent Sherri Onks of the FBI’s Jacksonville office said, “We have opened a federal rights investigation, and will pursue this incident as a hate crime.”