Jacksonville, FL pastor encourages sadness over fear after fatal shooting kills 3

The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. within a mile of Edward Waters University, a small, historically Black university.

The pastor of a church near the site of the racist fatal shooting of three Black people in Florida told congregants Sunday to follow Jesus Christ’s example and keep their sadness from turning to rage.

Jacksonville’s mayor wept. Others at the service focused on Florida’s political rhetoric and said it has fueled such racist attacks.

The shooting traumatized an historically Black neighborhood in Jacksonville Saturday as thousands visited Washington, D.C., to attend the Rev. Al Sharpton’s 60th anniversary commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech.

The latest in a long history of American racist killings was at the forefront of Sunday services at St. Paul AME Church, about 3 miles from the crime scene.

“Our hearts are broken,” the Rev. Willie Barnes told about 100 congregants Sunday morning. “If any of you are like me, I’m fighting trying to not be angry.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Sunday that the Justice Department was “investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.”

“No person in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence and no family should have to grieve the loss of a loved one to bigotry and hate,” he said.

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan cried as she addressed the congregation.