JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters on Monday evening shared new videos that show what happened in the hour before the New Town Dollar General shooter carried out what police said was a racially motivated attack that left three people dead.
As detectives continue to connect the dots on what led to the Saturday shooting that killed three Black Jacksonville residents, Sheriff Waters provided more details about the shooter’s movements and whereabouts before the tragedy.
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Waters said twenty minutes before noon, the shooter left his Oakleaf home in Clay County to head toward Jacksonville.
Before making a stop at Edward Waters University to prepare for the shooting, he stopped at a Family Dollar store on Myrtle Avenue and Moncrief Road. Video showed him entering the store wearing a COVID-19 face mask to make a purchase and leaving the store with a “small shopping bag,” according to the sheriff. It was not immediately clear what he bought.
Waters speculated the shooter may have been casing the store as a potential target.
Waters also noted the shooter previously worked at a Dollar Tree store for about 10 months in the Oakleaf area.
Surveillance footage also shows the shooter pulling up in a parking lot behind EWU’s library to put on his vest and shirt. In the video, a maroon car parks across the street then campus security is seen pulling into the same parking lot as the shooter.
The security officer gets out of his vehicle and takes a few steps toward the shooter before the shooter returns to his SUV and drives off, prompting the officer to follow him.
Waters said, after seeing the videos, he does not believe that EWU was the intended target of the rampage.
In another video, three JSO officers are seen coming through the back door of the Dollar General and moving through the store to find the shooter.
“This footage shows Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officers inside the store after the shooter had begun his rampage,” Waters said. “We also believe once those officers got inside, that suspect decided to kill himself. A gunshot rang out. They were taking cover. That’s when we believe the suspect took his own life. So our agency will continue to diligently investigate these horrific crimes so that we can better understand what happened.”