President Joe Biden was in Live Oak Saturday, but he had words condemning a "terrorist act driven by racial hatred" in Jacksonville the week before.
"Our hearts are with you," Biden said regarding the families and loved ones of the three Black people gunned down in a New Town Dollar General by a White man with swastikas drawn on his AR-15.
Biden said the "terrorist act" was "driven by hatred and animus."
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me say this clearly, hate will not prevail in America. Hate will not prevail in America. Racism will not prevail in America. Domestic terrorism will not prevail in America. And to make it real clear, silence on this issue, both public and private and the private sector, silence is complicity," Biden said.
The slaying left four people dead five years to the day after a mass shooting at a video game tournament at the former Jacksonville Landing, and one day short of 73 years from Ax Handle Saturday, a day on which White marauders attacked Black shoppers downtown.
"Plainly put, this shooter was racially motivated and he hated Black people," Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a vigil after the shooting. "He wanted to kill n——. That's the one and only time I will use that word."
Gov. Ron DeSantis condemned the "scumbag" who committed the murders.
"This shooting, based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this, was racially motivated," DeSantis said. "He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable."
"This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions," the Governor added. "And so he took the coward's way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms."
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