Three African Americans were gunned down yesterday at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, FL, by a white man in his 20s who espoused racist views. The shooting was one of several in just two days involving mass casualties. From CNN's report:
“'This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,' Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening.
Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.
All three victims, two men and one woman, were Black.
Waters said the shooter lived in Clay County, Florida, south of Jacksonville, with his parents. Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border.
Waters said the shooter told his father by text to 'check his computer.' The father found documents described by Waters as manifestos and called authorities.
But Waters said by the time authorities were alerted about the manifestos, the gunman had already started the attack in the Dollar General." (our emphasis)
The shooter apparently was evaluated for a mental health crisis in 2017, which would have made him ineligible to purchase firearms. This shooting follows a pattern of young white men who have been swept up by racist and anti-Semitic ideology on line in the past decade, motivated by a permissive attitude cultivated by reckless, white nationalist politicians.
