Authorities said a white man motivated by racial hatred killed three Black people in a Florida discount store Saturday before killing himself following a standoff with police.
According to Sheriff TK Waters, the gunman in his early 20s targeted a specific group of people, including Black people. That's what he claimed he wanted to do.
According to the sheriff's office, the shooter, who has yet to be named, entered a Dollar General store wearing a tactical vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun.
Manifestos uncovered by the gunman's family shortly before the incident "detail the shooter's disgusting ideology of hate," according to Waters, and at least one of the rifles bore hand-drawn swastikas.
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The incident occurred near Edward Waters University, a historically Black college in the state's southern region.
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The university said the gunman had been on campus earlier that day, though no one was hurt. Sherri Onks said the FBI's special agent for Jacksonville, a metropolis of over one million people in the state's northeast region, said the shooting will be investigated as a hate crime.
Officials said there was no evidence the shooter was part of a bigger group.
"We know that he acted completely alone," Waters said.
