Jacksonville shooting: Everything we know so far after two people shot dead at video game tournament

Three people were killed including the gunman and 10 others wounded in the shooting on Sunday
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Ella Wills28 August 2018

Authorities have identified the suspect who opened fire at the venue of an e-sports game in a deadly shooting in Florida, killing two people.

David Katz, 24, from Baltimore injured a further 10 people before fatally shooting himself during the "Madden NFL 19" American football game tournament on Sunday.

The Madden tournament was being held at a gaming bar at the Jacksonville Landing, a shopping and dining complex.

David Katz, 24, has been named as the man who shot dead two gamers before taking his own life
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Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said on Monday that the gunman specifically targeted fellow gamers at the tournament, walking past patrons in other parts of the restaurant and opening fire in a back room.

Katz, known as "Bread" in the gaming circuit, had travelled up from his home in Maryland for the Madden tournament.

Footage from a gaming tournament in Buffalo, New York, last year has surfaced in which Katz boasts of being “one of the better players”.

The Madden game's maker, EA Sports, lists a David Katz as a 2017 championship winner.

The victims have been named as 22-year-old Elijah Clayton of Woodland Hills, California, and 28-year-old Taylor Robertson of Giles, West Virginia

Katz carried two handguns, including one equipped with a laser sight, into the tournament venue but only fired one of them, the sheriff told a news conference.

He said surveillance video revealed Katz was the only shooter, but his motive remains unknown.

The wounded victims are all expected to recover.

'History of mental illness'

Divorce papers from Katz's parents obtained by the Associated Press say that as an adolescent he was twice hospitalised in psychiatric facilities and was prescribed antipsychotic and antidepressant medications.

The records show Katz's parents disagreed on how to care for their troubled son, with his father claiming his estranged wife was exaggerating symptoms of mental illness as part of their long and bitter custody battle. The couple divorced in 2007.

The papers say that Katz played video games obsessively as a young adolescent, often refusing to go to school or to bathe.

Elizabeth Katz, a toxicologist at the Department of Agriculture, said she confiscated some of her son's gaming equipment after finding him playing in the early hours.

Jacksonville Sheriffs officers talk in front of the GLHF Game Bar inside Jacksonville Landing
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At one point, she put his gaming controllers in her bedroom behind a locked door and he punched a hole in the door, she said.

But Katz' father claimed in court filings that Katz was not "diagnosed as psychotic."

Acquaintances remember

Katz attended Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland.

Ti'Andre Montana told CNN he was a video gamer who "was antisocial".

"He stayed to himself ... he didn't talk much," Mr Montana said. "He was a good guy. I couldn't imagine him doing such thing.

Police tape blocking a street leading to the shopping complex in Florida
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Drew Ford, who graduated in 2011 alongside Katz, only spoke to him a few times.

"He was a quiet kid, but when you talked to him he seemed cool," Mr Ford said.

Meanwhile one of Katz' gaming rivals recalled him as "being kind of different."

Shay Kivlen was the best friend of one of the gamers who was killed in Sunday's shooting at Jacksonville Landing in Florida.

Mr Kivlen said that Katz didn't talk much with fellow gamers, either online or when they met face-to-face for Madden tournaments.

He said much of what he and others knew of Katz, they learned from his baffling style of playing the game.

In a statement Monday evening EA CEO Andrew Wilson said he is cancelling the remaining qualifier events to focus on safety.

"We have made a decision to cancel our three remaining Madden Classic qualifier events while we run a comprehensive review of safety protocols for competitors and spectators."

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