Sao Paulo
Four people died in a shootout at a store in Jacksonville, Florida (USA) on Saturday (26). According to local authorities, a white man hit three black people and the case is being treated as a racially motivated crime.
At a news conference, Jacksonville police said the gunman, who was killed shortly after the shooting of two men and a woman, intended to kill black people and was armed with a rifle and a pistol.
The case took place at a branch of Dollar General, a variety store in the United States.
The shooter was not named and police said they believe he acted alone. Before the attack, he had written “several manifestos” to the media, his parents and the authorities, outlining his hatred of black people.
Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters said the gunman was spotted at Edward Waters University, a local college known for accepting black students. He donned a vest and mask before going to Dollar General.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis condemned the attack, saying the gunman got out “cowardly.”
“The attack was racially motivated based on the manifesto of the bum who committed it. It targeted people because of their race. This is totally unacceptable,” said DeSantis, who is running for president in the 2024 Republican primary.
Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, said the US government is monitoring the situation in Jacksonville and will continue to enforce the laws to keep Florida residents safe.
Race crimes in the United States
This is another case of racially motivated crime in the United States that shows the progression of armed violence in the country.
Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and compiled by researchers from major universities in a study showed that in 2021, for every white man killed with a gun in the United States, more than 22 black men would be killed by the same circumstances became.
Last year there were 48,953 homicides and suicides the highest rate since 1981, when the CDC began analyzing the data. The record is 134 deaths a day or nearly one American killed by gunfire every 20 minutes. At the same time, the inequality in the effects of violence on different social groups becomes clear.
The discussion about access to guns is also a constant in American society and will be an issue in the 2024 election process.
While the Democrats are trying to enact stricter laws against arming the population, the Republicans are countering this dispute.
In May 2022, ten people died in a shooting in Buffalo, New York. The case, which took place in a supermarket in the region, affected 13 people, 11 of them black.
The shooter, a selfconfessed white supremacist, was sentenced to life in prison in February this year. He had pleaded guilty to 15 state crimes in connection with the action.
Days before the crime, he published a 180page racist manifesto on the internet.