1 UNITED STATES
White gunman kills three in ‘racist’ Florida shooting
The FBI was investigating the shooting that killed three people inside a store in Jacksonville, Florida, which officials said was racially motivated, as community leaders expressed horror.
A white man, armed with a high-powered rifle with swastikas painted on it, a handgun, and wearing a tactical vest and mask, entered the discount Dollar General store just before 2pm last Saturday and shot and killed two men and one woman, before fatally shooting himself. All three victims were Black.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the US secretary of homeland security, condemned the shooting.
“Too many Americans have lost a loved one because of racially motivated violence,” he said.
The Jacksonville sheriff, TK Waters, last Sunday named the gunman as Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, and said the suspect had no criminal history and had bought the weapons legally.
Waters had told a news conference on Saturday that the shooter “hated Black people”.
Speaking to WJXT, Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman said: “I’m tired of seeing all the shootings … The people in this community are hurting.”
2 GREECE
Hundreds of firefighters battle to extinguish wildfires
More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries, backed by water-dropping planes and helicopters, are battling three large wildfires.
A blaze in the north-eastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, believed to have caused 20 of the 21
