Jaguars’ Shad Khan on Jacksonville shooting: ‘Hatred cannot be a choice’

Jaguars team owner Shad Khan released a statement following a shooting at a Jacksonville, Florida, store that left three people dead Saturday afternoon.

Police said a masked White man opened fire and fatally shot three Black people inside a Dollar General in a predominantly African American neighborhood. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters called the shooting “racially motivated” and said the unidentified suspect made his hate for Black people clear in racist writings.

Khan on Sunday released a statement through the team.

“The heartache I share with family and friends of the victims today is deepened knowing this tragedy in New Town will be remembered as an act of hatred against Black people of our community,” he said. “Some things in our lives are beyond our control, but we are able to determine how we treat, respect and love each other. 

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“Hatred cannot be a choice. No one should be victim of hatred. No one should hate.”

Waters said the shooter was in his 20s and used a Glock handgun and a semiautomatic rifle with at least one of them having a swastika painted on it. He also said the shooter was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, had once been involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident and was once involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination.

“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. There is no place for hate in this community,” Waters added. “I am sickened by this cowardly shooter’s personal ideology.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.