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A shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, has left multiple people and the shooter dead, officials say

Jacksonville's mayor says multiple people have been fatally shot inside a Dollar General store in the city

Via AP news wire
Saturday 26 August 2023 23:31 BST

Multiple people were fatally shot Saturday inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store, the city's mayor has told a television station. A city council member says the shooter is dead.

Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT ā€œthere are a number of fatalitiesā€ inside the store but didn't give a precise number. Numerous police officers were in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.

ā€œThis is unacceptable,ā€ Deegan told the station. ā€œOne shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.ā€

Jacksonville City Council member Ju'Coby Pittman told the station the shooter is dead. She did not give details.

ā€œMy heart is heavy. I am tired of all of the shootings,ā€ she said.

Edward Waters University students were being kept in their dorms, the school said in a statement. No students or faculty are believed involved, the school said.

Further details were not immediately available. The city says it and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office will hold a press conference.

Penny Jones told the The Associated Press that she worked at the store until a few months ago. She lives a few blocks away in the predominantly Black neighborhood.

ā€œI’m just waiting to hear about my co-workers that I used to work with,ā€ Jones said. ā€œI don’t know if it’s safe to move about the neighborhood.ā€

Jones added that she was ā€œfeeling awkward, scared.ā€

"I don’t want to leave my house. I’m thinking, do I want to go back to the store? Is this going to start happening more frequently? I don’t know what the cause of it is. I’m confused. It’s a lot of different feelings going on right now,ā€ she said Saturday afternoon.

The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.

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