A white man wearing a mask and carrying at least one weapon bearing a swastika fatally shot three Black people inside a Florida store Saturday in an attack.
According to the officials, he had a clear hatred for black people.
In addition to carrying a firearm with a painted symbol of the genocidal Nazi regime of Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, the shooter issued racist statements before the shooting.
He also killed himself at the scene. “He hated Black people,” the sheriff said.
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.
The gunman, who was in his 20s, wore a bullet-resistant vest and used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
The shooter sent written statements to federal law enforcement and at least one media outlet shortly before the attack with evidence suggesting the attack was intended to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of two people during a video game tournament in Jacksonville by a shooter who also killed himself.
The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. within a mile of Edward Waters University, a small, historically Black university.
Shortly before the attack, the gunman sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer, where he found his writings. The family notified 911, but the shooting had already begun, Waters said.
