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President Joe Biden on Sunday mourned a shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, in which three people were killed, saying “hate must have no safe harbor” in the United States.
Three people were killed Saturday afternoon in a shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. Officials said the shooter, a white man in his 20s, targeted Black victims. He also drove to Edward Waters University, the first historically black college in Florida, before driving to the store, law enforcement and university officials confirmed.
“Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America,” Biden said in the statement on Sunday.
Two men and one woman were killed in the attack.
The president noted that the shooting came on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, one of the most important civil rights demonstrations of the 20th century.
“We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin,” Biden said Sunday, adding “Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed in a separate statement on Sunday that the Justice Department is “investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.“
“No person in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence and no family should have to grieve the loss of a loved one to bigotry and hate,” he said.
Police on Sunday identified the shooter, who died by suicide. He carried an “AR-style” rifle and a handgun that had swastikas on it.
Contributing: Associated Press; Jennifer Sangalang, Teresa Stepzinski, Gary T. Mills, Francisco Guzman and N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY Network
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