A masked white man has shot dead three Black people in a shop in Florida, in the southern United States, in a racially-motivated attack.
According to international media reports, the sheriff’s office in Jacksonville, the man, who was in his 20s but has not yet been named, was wearing body armour when he entered the Dollar General outlet armed with an assault-style rifle and a handgun.
He shot dead three Black customers – two men and one woman. After a standoff with police, he shot himself.
“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T K Waters told a press conference on Saturday.
Waters said authorities believed the attacker acted alone and that before the attack, he had authored “several manifestos” for media, his parents and law enforcement detailing his “disgusting ideology of hate”.
He said the attacker was spotted at a local historically Black college, Edward Waters University, where he put on his vest and a mask before going to the local branch of Dollar General, a discount chain with stores across the US.
The victims of the attack have not been named.
