Investigators in Jacksonville, Fla., are continuing to probe what officials have said was a “racially motivated” shooting that left three Black people dead over the weekend.
Saturday’s shooting was yet another case of killings in the United States that investigators say were race-targeted, joining the likes of the 2022 supermarket mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., and the 2015 slayings in Charleston, S.C.
The Jacksonville shooter killed himself as police arrived, roughly 11 minutes after the shooting began, and police say he had left behind white supremacist writings that read like “the diary of a madman.”
Here is what we know so far.
Where did the shooting happen?
Saturday’s shooting took place at a Dollar General store in New Town, a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Jacksonville.
The store is near Edward Waters University, a historically Black school with roughly 1,000 students. The shooter was spotted on campus earlier in the day by a security guard and was asked to leave when he refused to identify himself, the school said.
He was later seen putting on his bullet-resistant vest and mask before he drove away. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said Sunday that it does not appear that he intended to attack the school.
How did the shooting unfold?
After the shooter left the school, a university security guard flagged down a Jacksonville sheriff’s officer, who was about to send out an alert to other officers when the shooting began at the store.
Waters said the shooter, who was wearing his vest covered by a shirt, gloves and a mask, was caught on video shooting Angela Michelle Carr, a 52-year-old woman, in her car outside the Dollar General.
He then entered the store and chased 19-year-old employee A.J. Laguerre before shooting him.
Numerous people fled through the back door, the sheriff said.
The shooter chased after them and fired, but missed. He went back inside the store and found Jerrald Gallion, 29, entering the front door with his girlfriend. He fatally shot Gallion. No one else was injured.
The shooter then killed himself as police arrived, authorities said.
Who was the shooter?
Authorities identified Ryan Palmeter, 21, as the shooter.
Palmeter lived in neighbouring Clay County with his parents.
Waters said Palmeter had been involved in a 2016 domestic violence incident that did not lead to an arrest, and was involuntarily committed for a 72-hour mental health examination the following year.
“There was no criminal record, nothing,” Waters said.
“There were no red flags.”
However, 2021 peer-reviewed research has shown more than two-thirds of mass shootings involve either a domestic situation or a shooter with a history of domestic violence. Any domestic violence history is a proven red flag for future violence in multiple studies.
Palmeter used two guns – a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, according to police.
Waters said they were purchased legally earlier this year.
Why did this happen?
During the attack, Waters said Palmeter texted his father and told him to break into his room and check his computer.
There, the father found a suicide note, a will and what authorities have described as racist writings from his son. The family notified authorities, but by then the shooting had already begun, the sheriff said.
Officials said there were writings to his family, federal law enforcement and at least one media outlet.
At least one of the guns had swastikas painted on it, and Waters said the shooter made clear in his writings that he hated Black people.
Waters described Palmeter’s writings as “the diary of a madman.”
“Portions of these manifestos detailed the shooter’s disgusting ideology of hate…. Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” he said.
“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. Any loss of life is tragic. But the hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak. There’s no place for hate in our community. And this is not Jacksonville.”
What’s going on now?
The U.S. Justice Department says it’s investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an “act of racially motivated violent extremism.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday that “white supremacy has no place in America.”
“We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin,” he said.
Biden also spoke to Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan and Waters. In both calls, he offered his full support to the people of Jacksonville, according to a statement Sunday evening from the White House.
During a vigil Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was booed.
DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, has been sharply criticized by Black leaders for what they say is his government’s attack on Black history.
In January, Florida banned an Advanced Placement course on African American history from being offered to high school students. In July, the state changed how history is taught in schools.
DeSantis said Sunday the state would work with Edward Waters University to ensure it has adequate security.
Jacksonville city Coun. Ju’Coby Pittman, a Democrat who represents the area where the shooting took place, chastised the crowd who booed DeSantis, and told them the governor was there to help.
DeSantis then told the crowd the gunman was “a major-league scumbag” and said that in Florida “we’re not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”
Shortly after DeSantis spoke, Jeffrey Rumlin, a pastor at the Dayspring Church in Jacksonville, took the microphone and said of the shooter: “At the end of the day, respectfully, governor, he was not a scumbag. He was a racist.”
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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