Racist shooter fires at blacks with legal guns

Hundreds gather at prayer vigil in Florida; killing under investigation as hate crime

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday at prayer vigils and in church, in frustration and exhaustion, to mourn yet another racist attack in the United States: the killing of three black people in Florida at the hands of a white, 21-year-old man who, authorities say, left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like "the diary of a madman".

The white gunman had legally purchased two firearms that he carried during the rampage, authorities said.

Following services earlier in the day, about 200 people showed up at a Sunday evening vigil a block from the Dollar General store in Jacksonville, where officials said Ryan Palmeter opened fire on Saturday using guns he bought legally despite a past involuntary commitment for a mental health exam.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis — who is running for the GOP nomination for president, who has loosened gun laws in Florida and who has antagonized civil rights leaders by deriding "wokeness" — was loudly booed as he addressed the vigil.

Ju'Coby Pittman, a Jacksonville city councilwoman who represents the neighborhood where the shooting happened, stepped in to ask the crowd to listen.

"It ain't about parties today," she said. "A bullet don't know a party."

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the guns were purchased in April and in June, with the dealers following laws and procedures, including background checks.

Because the shooter was released after a mental health examination, that would have not shown up on his background checks, Waters said.

The sheriff said the suspect was caught on video shooting Angela Michelle Carr, a 52-year-old woman, in her car in Jacksonville outside the Dollar General store. He then entered the store where he shot and killed 19-year-old Anolt Joseph "AJ" Laguerre Jr and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29.

Palmeter, who lived with his parents in Orange Park, Clay County, outside of Jacksonville, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly after the shootings.

"This is a dark day in Jacksonville's history," Waters said. "Any loss of life is tragic, but the hate that motivated the shooter's killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak. This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated black people."

Authorities said Palmeter had authored "several manifestos" for media, his parents and law enforcement detailing hatred for black people.

The sheriff said Palmeter, who had no arrest record, was briefly held in 2017 under a state law called the Baker Act, which states that a person can be "taken to a receiving facility for involuntary examination" during a mental health crisis.

Authorities played two video clips of the shooting. One shows the shooter pointing his weapon at a car outside the store, and the other shows him walking into the store and pointing his rifle to his right.

"I wanted the people to be able to see exactly what happened in this situation and just how sickening it is," Waters said.

US President Joe Biden, in a statement on Sunday, said the shooting occurred the same day the country marked the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights.

Extremism probed

The Justice Department is investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an "act of racially motivated violent extremism", Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

DeSantis, who cut short a presidential campaign stop in Iowa, returned to Florida on Sunday.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US, with more than 469 in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as any in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter.

Saturday's shooting in Jacksonville bears similarity to last year's shooting in Buffalo, where a white supremacist killed 10 black people, and took place five years after another gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before shooting himself.

Agencies contributed to this story.