Ryan Christopher Palmeter, the shooter who killed three black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, before turning the weapon on himself on August 26 might have been inspired by the David Katz shooting that took place in 2018.

August 26 was the fifth anniversary of the 2018 shooting at a video game tournament that left two people dead and nine injured. Katz, 24, a former winner at the local annual Madden NFL tourney killed himself after opening fire on attendees at the event.

Moments before carrying out the shooting, Palmeter texted his father to check his computer, where the 21-year-old had left “several manifestos” detailing his hatred for black people, police said.

Also Read | Jacksonville shooting manifesto showed Ryan Christopher Palmeter’s ‘disgusting ideology of hate’

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference on Sunday that the manifestos “detailed the shooters disgusting ideology of hate”. “Finely put: this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people. The manifesto is, quite frankly… the diary of a madman”, he said. “He knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid. He knew what he was doing and again, it’s disappointing that anyone would go to these lengths to hurt someone else.”

The evidence has led officials to believe Palmeter chose August 26 to carry out the shooting because it coincided with the 2018 shooting, carried out by Katz.

Also Read | Who was Ryan Palmeter, Jacksonville Dollar General store shooting suspect?

The Jacksonville shooting also took place just a day before the 63rd anniversary of the most infamous racist incident to take place in Jacksonville known as “Ax Handle Saturday.” At the time, 200 members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked black protesters, who were conducting a sit-in at businesses where white owners kept them out. KKK members beat the protesters with bats and ax handles as the police watched, doing nothing. Later only black people were arrested in the incident.

Police have not said whether the two anniversaries played a role in Palmeter’s planning. “This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told reporters Saturday.