JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Minutes before the man described as a “white supremacist” shot and killed three Black Jacksonville residents inside a Dollar General store in New Town on Saturday, students at Edward Waters University first spotted the man on their campus putting on what they described as gloves and some type of tactical armored vest.
EWU President Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr. said shortly after that the man was seen inside a car in a campus parking lot, security officer Lt. Antonio Bailey was flagged down by the students. A video posted to TikTok appears to show the suspicious person in a parking lot on Pearce Street, behind EWU’s Centennial building.
“We preach ‘You see something, say something’, and they did just that,” Bailey said. “I just thank God that I was there and that the students was there and was able to alert me.”
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Bailey then walked up to the car but when he got close, the man sped off, jumped a curb and nearly hit a brick column in the parking lot, Faison said.
“For you to see me approaching, and for you to leave that fast...something’s not right,” Bailey said.
Bailey then got into his own public safety vehicle and followed the man in an attempt to identify him and get the license plate number. Faison said Bailey then found a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer nearby and gave him a description of the man and the vehicle he was driving.
“You sir, are nothing short of a hero and we honor you today,” Faison said during a Monday news conference.
Faison also gave credit to the students who first sought to alert Bailey to the unwanted intruder. Faison said he believed the shooter was planning to target EWU students.
“We heard yesterday from JSO that there was a manifesto, that his aim was to kill n******. He could have gone anyplace in this city, but he came to Florida’s first HBCU first, right. And so I think, you know, circumstantially, we can conclude that this is where he aimed to complete his horror at, but for the heroism of Lieutenant Bailey, we could be having tragedy even more,” Faison said.
But following the EWU news conference, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said based on available video evidence, he doesn’t think the shooter was targeting EWU.
Moments after leaving EWU in a rush, the shooter parked at a nearby Dollar General store and went on a killing spree using an AR-15, which had swastikas drawn on it. He then took his own life, JSO said.
Bailey, who has been working with Protective Enterprises Public Safety for a year-and-a-half, said when he confronted the gunman, he was not able to see a firearm before he sped off.
Bailey said only the now-dead gunman knows if he was planning to attack students on campus, but he’s grateful that no students were hurt.