JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As the community struggles to deal with the emotional impact of the Jacksonville Dollar General mass shooting, they are also faced with practical concerns.
Saturday's racially motivated attack took three lives, but people who live close to the Dollar General say the shooter also took out a neighborhood resource; one less store people have access to.
Since the Dollar General on Kings Road is closed, neighbors finding groceries has become more difficult. The two closest grocery stores are Harvey's and Publix, which are three miles away. Walmart is eight miles away from the dollar store.
Larry Waters said his 72-year-old father would walk to the store and relied on it being there.
"We don't have a place to buy food," Waters said. "He could come up and buy a pack of bacon or those Jimmy Dean sausages he loves so much."
Waters expressed concerns about how the store's closure will impact his father and other people in the community. He told First Coast News that his father does not feel as independent like he used to. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the Northwest community on Kings Road is low income and a food desert. The USDA defines a food desert as a low-income community where at least 500 people of the population "is greater than one mile from the nearest supermarket, supercenter or large grocery store for an urban area..."
Bridgette Chaplin, who has called her neighborhood on Kings Road home for 30 years, lives in front of the store.
"This is horrible," Chaplin said. "This is the worst thing possible."
While it is not a grocery store, there is a another dollar store on Kings Road and a few fast food restaurants residents have access to.