A white man armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, before shooting himself, in what local law enforcement described as a racially motivated crime.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told a press conference. He said; "This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,"

The suspect, whom Waters described as a white male wearing a tactical vest, was not identified, stressing that the three victims, two men and a woman were Black.

Waters disclosed that authorities believed the shooter acted alone, and that before the shooting he had authored "several manifestos" for the media, his parents and law enforcement, detailing his hatred for Black people.

Waters described his weapons as a Glock and an "AR-15 style" rifle, with swastikas on it, referring to a lightweight semi-automatic long gun often used in mass shootings.

"The hate that motivated the shooter's killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak," Waters said.

He said the shooter was spotted at a local historically Black college, Edward Waters University, where he put on his vest and a mask before going to the local branch of the Dollar General, a discount chain with stores across the United States.

In the same vein, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FBI office, Sherri Onks, said Federal Officials had opened a civil rights investigation and would pursue the incident as a hate crime.

"Hate crimes are always and will always remain a top priority for the FBI because they are not only an attack on a victim, they're also meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community," Onks said.

Mass shootings have become common in the United States, with more than 469 so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.