US: Several killed in racist shooting in Florida

Several people were killed in a racially-motivated shooting incident around and inside a Dollar General discount store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, police said.

"One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take," Mayor Donna Deegan told local news channel WJXT.

Three Black people were killed by the shooter, who bore a swastika and issued racist statements before the attack.

What do we know about the shooting?

A gunman fired at cars passing by the store before barricading himself inside, local media reported. He then engaged in a standoff with police.

Sheriff T.K. Waters told reporters that three victims were involved in the incident, adding that they all died. Waters said the suspect is believed to have taken his own life.

"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.

The shooting occurred near Edward Waters University, which is historically Black.

The university said in a statement that a security officer had seen the man near the school's library. The man was asked to leave after refusing to provide identification and then departed the premises without incident.

Who is the suspect?

The shooter was armed with a high-powered rifle and handgun, Waters said at a news conference. He added that the shooting was racially motivated.

"Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people," Waters said.

Police said that at least one of the man's firearms had a swastika painted on it.

Waters described the suspect as a white male in his early 20s, without identifying him, adding that the three victims, two men and a woman, were all Black.

The shooter is believed to have acted alone, Waters said. He had authored "several manifestos" on his hatred for Black people.

The incident is the latest in a string of shooting events across the US this weekend.

sdi,rmt/sri (AFP, AP, Reuters)