On Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida, a white gunman opened fire inside a Dollar General store, killing three black people (two men and one woman). He then shot himself. The shooter has been identified as Ryan Palmeter. According to authorities, the shooting was racially motivated.
According to authorities, Ryan left his parents’ home in Clay County, Florida, around 11:40 a.m. Saturday and headed toward Jacksonville in the next county over. Police have identified the shooter as Ryan Christopher Palmeter. They added that he was carrying a Glock pistol and an AR-15-style rifle, both of which were legally purchased in Florida.
At 1:18 p.m., Ryan’s father received a text message from his son asking him to check his computer. Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters said Ryan had written multiple manifestos, including ones for his parents, the media, and federal authorities. The manifestos included information about the shooter’s “abhorrent ideology of hate,” according to Sheriff Waters.
Ryan often used the N-word in his manifestos, according to Sheriff TK Waters. “Honestly, these are the writings of a crazy person,” Waters said Sunday on “Good Morning America.” “They [included] “His pretty liberal use of the N-word, multiple times. It was clear that his crimes were motivated by a desire to shoot black people.”
Angela Michelle Carr, 52, was shot while driving, store employee AJ Laguerre, 19, was injured while trying to flee, and customer Gerrald Gallion, 29, was shot as he entered the store on Saturday, according to Sheriff Waters.
According to authorities, Ryan entered the store wearing a tactical vest and armed with a revolver and an AR-15-style gun with a swastika. Before the shooting began, the gunman allegedly ordered “everyone who is not black out” of the store, according to Florida State Representative Angie Nixon. Before turning the gun on himself, he fatally shot three people.
Authorities are looking into the incident as a possible hate crime.
The gunman was involved in an unnamed family call in 2016, and authorities examined him for mental illness in 2017, officials said. The results of that investigation are not yet known. A swastika can be seen painted on at least one of the gunmen’s guns in police photos.
According to Sheriff Waters, the shooter’s parents did not own these guns.
The shooter was spotted on the campus of the historically black Edward Waters College before heading to the Dollar General, the sheriff said. An unidentified man showed up on campus Saturday and was asked to leave after refusing to identify himself to a security guard, according to a statement released by Edward Waters College.
Before the event, police reported that an internal affairs call to his home in 2016 had not resulted in an arrest. He was briefly detained for emergency medical treatment under Florida’s Baker Act a year later. As she addressed the crowd, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan sobbed.
“There are days when I feel like I’m going backwards,” she said.
“I’ve heard some people say that some of the rhetoric we’re hearing doesn’t really represent what’s in people’s hearts, it’s just a game. It’s just a political game,” Donna said. “Three people lost their lives, it’s not a game.”