A gunman opened fire at discount store in the city of Jacksonville in the US state of Florida on Saturday, killing three Black people before turning the gun on himself.
At a press conference, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K Waters described the murders as "racial motivated" and said that the suspected "hated Black people."
Before the attack, the suspect posted several manifestos on social media, detailing his hatred for Black people. The suspect's weapons, an AR-15 style rifle and a pistol, were emblazoned with Nazi imagery.
Authorities announced that the gunman had been turned away from the historically Black Edward Waters university just prior to the attack, having refused to identify himself to an on-campus security officer.
There have been at least 472 mass shootings in the US so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 2023 has been an exceptionally violent year, with the number of mass shootings exceeding 400 in July for the first time in a decade.
