Racist Jacksonville gunman inspired by previous mass shooting

The white gunman who gunned down three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, before turning the weapon on himself appears to have been inspired by the fifth anniversary of a similar local mass shooting.

Just moments prior to the Saturday afternoon rampage, the gunman, who authorities have yet to publicly identify, texted his father to check his computer, which held “several manifestos” detailing his hatred for black people, police said.

The evidence has led officials to believe the gunman chose Aug. 26 to attack in order to coincide with the 2018 shooting at a video game tournament that left two people dead and nine injured.

David Katz, 24, a previous winner at the local annual Madden NFL tourney, opened fire on the attendees before killing himself.

The latest shooting also took place just a day before the 63rd anniversary of Jacksonville’s most infamous racist incident, known as “Ax Handle Saturday.”

During the notorious event, 200 members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked black protesters conducting a sit-in at businesses where white owners kept them out.

The KKK members were armed with bats and ax handles, beating the protesters as police watched and refused to act until a black street-gang came to interfere. Only black people were arrested in the incident.

The shooting on Saturday also notably occurred within hours of the conclusion to the March on Washington’s 60-year anniversary event, which celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s historical speech while renewing calls to crack down on hate crimes around the nation.

Police did not say whether the two anniversaries played a role in the Jacksonville shooter’s planning.

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told reporters Saturday.

Waters said the suspect, who was in his 20s, donned a tactical vest and carried a Glock and AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle that had swastikas and other symbols of Nazi Germany painted on it.

Officials said the shooter was seen putting on a mask at Edward Waters University, a local historically Black college, on Saturday afternoon before entering the nearby Dollar General and killing two men and one woman.

He shot himself there before cops arrived.

The gunman might have originally planned to shoot students at Edward Waters, but could have been scared off by security officers who told him to leave when he first arrived on campus, Waters noted.

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

Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is campaigning in Iowa, also described the shooter as a “coward,” labeling him a “scumbag” who took innocent lives.

“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out,” the Republican said.

Federal authorities are probing the attack, which they are treating as a hate crime and “an act of racially-motivated violent extremism,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Sunday.

“The entire Justice Department extends its deepest condolences to the loved ones of the victims and to the Jacksonville community as they mourn an unimaginable loss,” Garland said.

With Post wires