Police search for motive in latest Florida mass shooting
Police searched on Monday for a motive in the third mass shooting in Florida in two years, which left two people dead and 11 wounded in Jacksonville, before the gunman killed himself at a video game tournament.
Witnesses told local media that the gunman, identified by police as David Katz, 24, of Baltimore, was a disgruntled gamer, angry because he lost Sunday’s tournament. It was not clear if he knew his victims.
While police have not identified the victims, family members told Jacksonville CBS television station WJAX that the two people killed were Eli Clayton and Taylor Robertson, both were video game contestants.
The Miami Herald also identified the victims: Robertson, 27, of Ballard, West Virginia, and Clayton, 22, of Woodland Hills, California.
Robertson, a husband and father, was the winner of the tournament last year and Katz won it the year before, the Herald reported, citing family and friends posting on the internet.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s office said 11 other people were wounded by gunfire and at least two others were injured while fleeing the scene of Sunday’s shooting.
Police say Katz killed himself and his body was found near the bodies of the two shot dead at The Landing, a popular riverside shopping and restaurant spot in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams declined Sunday to comment on possible reasons for the attack.
Police and FBI agents swarmed Katz’s upscale townhouse in South Baltimore late on Sunday, multiple media accounts said, including the Baltimore Sun.
Police also seized Katz’s vehicle parked nearby the tournament site.
The shooting took place during a regional qualifier for the Madden 19 online game tournament at the GLHF Game Bar inside a pizza restaurant, according to the venue’s website.
The winners of the contest go forward to the video game finals in Las Vegas and compete for $165,000.
The latest rampage occurred amid a debate over US gun laws that was given fresh impetus by the massacre in February of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida.