The Jacksonville mass shooter left a manifesto saying he hated Black people. His assault weapon was covered with swastikas..
Stop Antisemitism attributed the incident to GDL—described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as “a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs,” whose name and branding parodies the ADL.
“This is a welcoming—this is a diverse city,” Mike Jachles, a police spokesperson, told WPTV. “But we have no place for that. We don’t welcome them, those types of messages.”
“I don’t think us showing up had anything to do with their timeline,” Jachles told another local news station, WPEC. “They were on public property; whether you endorse the message or not, we have to enforce the law. So we’re looking at what, if any, laws were broken.”
On January 16, Stop Antisemitism posted footage watermarked with the logo of NSF, of another building projection, this time in Jacksonville. On the top of the Wells Fargo building, the words “Jews are wrecking the U.S.A.” scroll across..
Liora Rez, executive director of Stop Antisemitism, told Newsweek it had traced the stunts back to Minadeo through one of his posts on the social media platform Gab.
Ben Popp, an investigative researcher at ADL’s Center on Extremism, said the rise in incidents was linked to Minadeo’s move from California to Florida, and that it had tracked others associated with GDL travelling to Florida to join the demonstrations.
Local police later told news station WPTV that a projector and generator had been used in the incident and that the men were confronted but were not cooperative.
A “white male” gunman wearing tactical gear killed three people at a Florida Dollar General store in a “racially motivated” attack using an assault rifle covered in Nazi swastikas say police.
The shocking incident in Jacksonville on Saturday is now being investigated as a racially motivated hate crime by the FBI and local law enforcement.
The suspected shooter, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was initially seen near the library on the campus of the city’s Edward Waters University but security guards tried to take him into custody and he escaped.
