Jacksonville shooter who targeted Black shoppers had swastikas drawn on rifle

A white gunman fatally shot three Black people in hate-motivated shooting at a Dollar General retailer in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon, Sheriff T.K. Waters said.

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “He wanted to kill n——.”

The shooter, who wore a tactical vest and was armed with an AR-style rifle and Glock handgun, had left messages for his parents, the media, and federal law enforcement officials detailing racial hatred, Waters said. The firearms were marked in white pen with swastikas.

Follow NBC News’s live coverage of the shooting.

“This was, quite frankly, a maniac who decided he wanted to take lives,” Waters said. “He targeted a certain group a people, and that’s Black people, that’s what he said he wanted to kill. And that’s very clear.”

“Any member of that race at that time was in danger — of the Black race,” he added.

The FBI has opened a federal civil rights investigation and is investigating the shooting as hate crime.

The shooting came two days before the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and on the same day thousands celebrated the anniversary in a march in the nation’s capital.

It also came five years to the date of a mass shooting at a video gaming event in Jacksonville.

Law enforcement officials have not identified the victims — two males and one female — or shooter, who was in his early 20s.

The “AR-style” rifle, or a long gun in the style of the AR-15, is commonly used in mass shootings.

Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who was campaigning in Iowa, said, “this shooting, based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated.”

“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions,” he said, adding condolences to the families who lost loved ones. “And so he took the coward’s way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms.”

The shooter lived in nearby Clay County with his parents, Waters said, and has had previous interactions with law enforcement.

In 2016 he was involved in a call about a domestic disturbance, which resulted in no arrests. In 2017, he was subject to the Baker Act, which the Florida court system says is when someone is given “emergency services and temporary detention for up to 72 hours for mental health examination” if the person is believed to be mentally unstable and a potential harm to themself or others.

The shooter left Clay County around 11:39 a.m. and headed to Jacksonville. At 1:18 p.m. he texted his father and told him to look on his computer, Waters said.

At 1:53 p.m. the shooter’s family called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office — but by that time, Waters said, he has already began shooting at the Dollar General store on Kings Road and Canal Street.

The three messages the shooter left, Waters said, detailed “a disgusting ideology of hate.”

Waters said there’s no evidence the shooter is part of a group and that he acted alone.

“We are heartbroken by the senseless act of violence that occurred at our Kings Road store in Jacksonville, Florida today,” Dollar General said. “At this time, supporting our Jacksonville employees and the DG family impacted by this tragedy is a top priority as we work closely with law enforcement.”

Nearby Edward Waters University, a historically Black college, issued a “stay in place” order for the campus Saturday, and said authorities have checked all campus facilities.

The school said there was no preliminary indication the shooting involved students, faculty or staff.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com