Edward Waters students were locked down in their dorms for several hours after the shooting. No students or faculty are believed involved, the school said.
The shooter had driven to Jacksonville from neighbouring Clay County, where he lived with his parents, the sheriff said. That house was being searched late on Saturday.
Shortly before the attack, the shooter sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer. The father found the writings and the family notified 911, but the shooting had already begun, Sheriff Waters said.
“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.” He said the investigation will continue. The FBI was helping the sheriff’s office and said it had opened a hate crime investigation.
City Mayor Donna Deegan said she is “heartbroken”.
“This is a community that has suffered again and again. So many times this is where we end up,” Ms Deegan said. “This is something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, after speaking by phone with the sheriff, called the shooter a “scumbag” and denounced his racist motivation.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out,” said Mr DeSantis, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
Dollar General’s corporate office said in a statement, “We are heartbroken by the senseless act of violence that occurred at our Kings Road store in Jacksonville, Florida today. At this time, supporting our Jacksonville employees and the DG family impacted by this tragedy is a top priority as we work closely with law enforcement.”
The deadly shooting took place within hours of the conclusion of a commemorative March on Washington in the nation’s capital, where organisers drew attention to the growing threat of hate-motivated violence against people of colour.
The attack on a shopping centre in a predominately Black neighbourhood raised memories of past shootings targeting Black Americans, such as the one at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022, and one at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The Buffalo supermarket shooting, in particular, stands apart as one of the deadliest targeted attacks on Black people by a white lone gunman in US history. Ten people were killed by the gunman, who has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
