(NewsNation) — A shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, that left three people dead on Saturday was racially motivated, according to authorities. The gunman then shot himself.
“Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference Saturday.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan told News4JAX a man had barricaded himself in Dollar General on Kings Road and started shooting.
Deegan had originally told WJXT “there are a number of fatalities” inside the store but didn’t give a precise number.
The shooting came on the same day thousands visited Washington, D.C., to attend the Rev. Al Sharpton’s 60th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
According to authorities, the gunman wore a tactical vest, used a handgun and an AR-15-style rifle in what was described as a racially-motivated attack. Both of the guns, as shown by police, had Swastikas on them.
The victims were all African American: 2 males and 1 female.
The suspect was described by authorities as a white male in his early 20s and openly racist.
“The people in this community, they’re hurting and they have every right to. You know, this makes no sense. I am very, very angry right now,” Jacksonville Council Member Ju’Coby Pittman told reporters at the scene.
“This is unacceptable,” Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”
According to authorities, the shooter gave three manifestos: 1 to his parents, 1 to the media, and 1 to authorities.
The sheriff’s office has not identified the victims or the shooter yet.
Authorities do not say if the shooter legally purchased the guns himself.
The FBI Jacksonville Field Office has opened a Federal Civil Rights Case as this is a hate crime.
The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.