Three people dead in racially-motivated shooting in Florida
UPDATE (12:19 PM): According to Jacksonville authorities, they have publically identified the gunman as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter.
Authorities say Palmeter had no criminal history, and legally purchased two firearms earlier this year.
According to Sheriff T.K. Waters, there were no prior indications that Palmeter should not have owned a gun, although in 2017, he had been held under the Baker Act, which imposes a temporary detention for a mental health examination.
In a press conference Sunday, authorities described a second-by-second timeline of the shooting incident, which took a total of 11 minutes, from start to finish.
They also showed a deeply edited and chilling video of the shooter as he began the attack. He was armed with an AR-style rifle and a handgun.
Palmeter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound following the shooting.
Authorities said earlier in the day, Palmeter had been turned away from Edward Waters University, a nearby historically Black university, by a security officer.
JACKSONVILLE, Flor. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Three people were shot and killed at a store in Jacksonville Saturday in what police are describing as a racially-motivated crime.
Police say a White man in his 20s entered a Dollar General store targeting Black people. All three victims, two males and one female, were Black. Police say the shooter killed himself after the attack.
"He targeted a certain group of people and that's Black people. That's what he that's what he said he wanted to kill. And that's very clear and I don't know that the targets were specific. But I know that any member of that of that race at that time was in danger," said Sheriff T.K. Waters of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO).
The sheriff says the gunman left behind messages describing his ideology of hate.
"And this type of hate...you see the swastika is on the gun. We must do everything that we can. We must do everything that we can to dissuade this type of hate. And so I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating this is for all of us, because we've seen it too much," said Donna Deegan, Mayor of Jacksonville.
"We're not going to stand for it"
When the gunman entered the store, he was wearing a tactical vest and armed with a handgun and an AR-15 style rifle.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) says it is investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
Before the shooting, the sheriff says the gunman called his father and told him to check his computer.
The father then called police, but by the time they got the message, the shooting had already begun.
"What matters is who we are as a community. We stand together as a community. We live together as a community we fight together as a community. And when someone comes into our city and does this, we're not going to stand for it and we don't accept it. So we're always going to fight against it," Waters expressed.
