President Biden: ‘White supremacy has no place in America’
President Biden on Sunday condemned the shooting and said a federal civil rights investigation was treating it “as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.” “Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America,” Biden said in a statement, noting that Saturday’s attack occurred on the same day as the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.
“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. Hate must have no safe harbor. Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent.
“Jill and I are praying for the victims and their families, and we grieve with the people of Jacksonville,” he concluded.
Mayor calls for ‘common-sense gun legislation’ and reckoning with ‘hate’
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan told MSNBC’s Katie Phang today that “common-sense gun legislation” and a reckoning with “hate” are necessary to prevent similar attacks in the future.
“This is something that we have seen far too often, these mass shootings happen over and over again,” Deegan said, adding she is “absolutely a proponent of common-sense gun legislation.”
The sheriff said Saturday that the shooter was subject to the Baker Act in 2017, which imposes a temporary detention for a mental health examination. But he was still able to obtain a gun, Phang noted.
Florida does not have a universal background check law for people buying firearms, but it does have a law prohibiting people from owning or possessing firearms if they have had documented mental health conditions, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Deegan also said officials must “talk about the hate” at the root of Saturday’s mass shooting.
“I will do everything I can to unify this community and to make sure that those same folks who seem to be victimized and marginalized over and over again do not find that to be the case in the city of Jacksonville,” she said.
Police were called in 2016 over fight between shooter and brother
The shooter’s parents called police in 2016 to report a domestic disturbance between Ryan Palmeter and his older brother, James Palmeter, according to Waters.
Police records indicate James Palmeter is currently serving a prison sentence for a 2017 armed robbery. Waters did not offer details of the dispute between the brothers but noted that Ryan Palmeter, who was then a teenager, was not arrested.
The sheriff expressed sympathy for the suspect’s parents, who did not appear to have any knowledge of their son’s plan.
“He made a decision to do something that his parents obviously didn’t know about,” Waters told NBC News today. “I do know that his parents didn’t want guns in the house because he asked to bring it there, and they said no.”
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook spoke with the parents, Waters said, and read the 20-page document written by the suspect. Waters described the document as a “manifesto” because it detailed the suspect’s feelings on the Black race, as well as his plans.
“He knew — this is my my assumption, but I think it’s a fairly good one —he knew that once this ended, we’d end up at his house and we’d see that,” Waters said. “He never sent it to anyone.”
Sheriff Waters breaks down the timeline of the shooting
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters gave a detailed timeline of the shooter’s actions during a news conference today, starting from when he changed into tactical gear at a nearby university to when he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
12:48 p.m.: The shooter is seen arriving at Edward Waters University. He parked a gray Honda Element behind the library, where he donned a bulletproof vest. A TikTok video was posted, without a time stamp, of the suspect changing.
12:55 p.m.: University security enters the same parking lot as the shooter, who drives away two minutes later.
1:08 p.m.: Security reaches out to a Jacksonville officer to flag a suspicions person report, and authorities start to file a “be on the lookout,” or BOLO, report. The suspect was identified as a white male, wearing a gray tank top, black shorts, a bulletproof vest and blue latex gloves.
1:08 p.m.: Video shows the gunman entering the Dollar General parking lot and shooting 11 rounds into a black Kia, killing Angela Carr.
1:09 p.m.: The shooter enters the store and shoots the second victim, Anolt Joseph Laguerre. Multiple people exit through the store’s rear door. The suspect also left through the rear door, but re-enters the Dollar General.
1:13 p.m.: Jarrald De’Shaun Gallion is shot and killed.
1:18 p.m.: The shooter texts his father with instructions to enter his bedroom using a screwdriver. His father finds a suicide note, as well as a last will and testament on his laptop.
1:19 p.m.: Law enforcement enters and officers hear a single gunshot. Authorities believe this is when the suspect killed himself.
HBCU turned away shooter before he opened fire at Dollar General
Edward Waters University, a historically black college in Jacksonville, said a campus security officer encountered the shooter near a library on campus Saturday before the shooting.
He left without incident, the school said in a statement, after he was turned away for refusing to identify himself.
The university was placed on lockdown until 4:30 p.m.
Three victims identified
The sheriff’s office identified the three people killed in Saturday’s shooting as: Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jarrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.
All three victims were Black.
Prayer vigils set for Sunday night near Dollar General and at Edward Waters University
More prayer vigils are set to take place in Jacksonville tonight.
One of the vigils, at 5:30 p.m., will take place next door to Dollar General, at 2161 Kings Road, according to a flyer shared by a local official on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Mayor Donna Deegan and Sheriff T.K. Waters are scheduled to attend.
Another vigil will take place on the campus of nearby Edward Waters University — a historically Black college — at 7:30 p.m., the university said in a post on X.
In a statement Saturday, university officials said the shooter showed up on campus earlier in the day, “refused to identify themselves and was asked to leave.” The school was placed on lockdown when the shooting later unfolded at Dollar General, according to the statement.
Shooter identified as Ryan Palmeter
Authorities identified the shooter as Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, from Orange Park, Florida. They also confirmed he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Waters said earlier that Palmeter had had previous interactions with law enforcement, including involvement in a 2016 domestic disturbance call. No arrests were made at the time, and Palmeter’s involvement was not clear.
Palmeter was subject to the Baker Act in 2017, a temporary detention for a mental health examination, the sheriff said Saturday. The details of the hold were not released.
“There was no flag that could have come up that would have stopped him from purchasing those guns. … When a person grabs a hold of a gun with hateful intentions, it’s very difficult to stop that from happening,” Sheriff T.K. Waters said.
Calls to Palmeter’s parents were not immediately returned to NBC News Sunday.
‘Feels some days like we’re going backwards’: Mayor Deegan speaks at prayer service
At a prayer service for the shooting victims Sunday, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan gave an emotional speech urging the community to come together for change.
Deegan’s said she takes responsibility for what happens in the city, but that she needed the community to stand together. She told those in attendance that it “feels some days like we’re going backwards.”
“When we look around us and we see what is happening because of our policies, because we don’t see each other, because we don’t believe symbols matter,” Deegan said. “When we see all of this, we have to understand that common sense tells we have to do something different. Otherwise, it’s just the same insanity over and over again.”
She noted that some people say the rhetoric doesn’t represent what people feel, but she called it “the political game.” Those who died in Saturday’s shooting were “not a game,” she said.
Deegan stressed the importance of seeing each other’s humanity .
“But today more than anything else, I just want you to know I am here with you and I love you,” Deegan said. “And I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do something to stop this. And I will do everything I can in my power to see that … this does not happen again.”
What happened in Jacksonville is part of a pattern
The killings in Jacksonville, Florida, were the latest acts of American gun violence motivated by racist ideology, a national scourge that federal officials have described as one of the most lethal forms of modern domestic terrorism.
The fatal shootings in Jacksonville, carried out by a white man in his early 20s who authorities say “hated Black people,” follows deadly hate-motivated shootings at public gathering places, including a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022.
Read more here.
Shooter left hate messages, sheriff says
The shooter, who wore a tactical vest and was armed with an AR-style rifle and Glock handgun, had left messages for his parents, the media and federal law enforcement officials that detailed racial hatred, Sheriff T.K. Waters said Saturday. The firearms were marked in white pen with swastikas.