Jacksonville Dollar General shooting: FBI, ATF join investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Saturday’s racially-motivated shooting that left three Black people dead at a Northwest Jacksonville Dollar General store as a hate crime, the agency announced Sunday.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said: “Yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida, three people were killed in a horrific act of hate. In the wake of the mass shooting, FBI and ATF agents responded to the scene and are continuing to work closely with local law enforcement on the ground. The Justice Department is investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
The shooter, described as a white male in his 20s, died by suicide, police said, after he fatally shot three people — two men and one woman, all Black — at the dollar store located on Kings Road.
“No person in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence and no family should have to grieve the loss of a loved one to bigotry and hate,” Garland’s statement continued. “One of the Justice Department’s first priorities upon its founding in 1870 was to bring to justice white supremacists who used violence to terrorize Black Americans. That remains our urgent charge today. The Justice Department will never stop working to protect everyone in our country from unlawful acts of hate.”
Dollar General store may not have been shooter’s first target
Before the attack on Black shoppers at the Dollar General store, the shooter drove onto the campus of Edward Waters University, located about a half-mile from the shooting scene, police and university officials said. There, he was confronted “almost immediately” by security personnel, A. Zachary Faison, Jr., the university’s president and CEO, said in a video statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Founded in 1866, Edwards Waters University is Florida’s first historically black college or university.
After being confronted by security personnel, the shooter put on an armored vest, got back into his vehicle and drove down Kings Road, Faison said, towards the Dollar General store.
Shooter used weapons emblazoned with swastikas
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the shooter carried out the attack with two weapons: a Glock handgun and an “AR-style” rifle. At least one of the guns was emblazoned with swastikas, he said.
After the shooting, law enforcement officials learned that the gunman had authored “several” manifestos, including one each to his parents, the media and federal agents. They “detailed the shooter’s disgusting ideology of hate,” Waters said. “Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people.”
As of noon Sunday, Jacksonville police had not identified the three victims or the
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