Jacksonville shooter legally bought guns used in racist attack, authorities say

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ron DeSantis’ policies toward the Black community are coming under fresh scrutiny after an avowed racist gunman killed three Black people over the weekend at a Jacksonville Dollar General store, an event the Justice Department is investigating as a hate crime.

Florida’s Black community and beyond have been vocally opposed to the DeSantis administration’s focus on wiping out higher education diversity programs, the teaching of institutional racism to public school students, scrutinizing African American history courses and drawing a redistricting map that erased northern Florida’s only Black-performing congressional seat, which included the city of Jacksonville.

In May, the NAACP even issued a travel advisory for the state, over DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”

“How much can we allow the governor to keep his foot on our neck and not say anything?” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Miami Democrat who is Black. “This is the result of that stuff. It’s not only the result, but it gives individuals who committed this act a hall pass to make it seem like it’s OK.”

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EWU students saw the shooter enter the campus and alerted authorities, university officials said today.

"I'm no hero," said Lt. Antonio Bailey, the officer who chased the shooter away from the HBCU campus Saturday. He said at a news conference today that it was students who first spotted the gunman on campus.

"If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do my job," Bailey said of the students. He said students reported seeing the man "putting on a tactical vest, gloves, mask" and told police who were patrolling the campus at the time.

"They flagged me down and acknowledge that they had seen what they seen and we go right into action," he said. University President A. Zachary Faison Jr. said he believes the shooter was planning to carry out his racist attack at the school before he was chased away.

An Edward Waters University police officer chased the Jacksonville shooter away from the campus before Saturday's racist attack at the Dollar General store.

The shooter went to the school, a historically Black university, before targeting the nearby store and killing three people.

University President A. Zachary Faison Jr. praised Lt. Antonio Bailey at a press conference this afternoon, thanking him for confronting and pursuing the Jacksonville shooter after he drove into a university parking lot wearing a bulletproof vest.

He said the gunman drove away as Bailey approached, jumping a curb as he fled the school where he apparently planned to carry out his racist attack. Bailey chased the gunman until he was able to flag down local police and alert them about incident.

"It was a God thing" that no one on campus was hurt, Faison said, calling Bailey the "embodiment of T'Challa," referring to the popular "Black Panther" hero.

Uber driver Angela Carr was dropping off a passenger at the Dollar General on Saturday when a racist gunman opened fire, killing her inside her vehicle, according to her daughter.

"She wasn't meant to go that fast. She wasn't even supposed to be there," said Ashley Carr, 36. "She was shot in her car. She never even had a chance."

Speaking by phone with NBC News today, she sobbed as she remembered her mother as a "hard-working" and "dedicated" woman.

"She was a great woman, and she's been taken," Ashley Carr said. "I hope her spirit is at rest."

She said she knows that the family of the gunman, who killed himself at the scene, feels "grief as well." She said she is praying for them.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat and ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, called the shooting “not only an act of hate — it was an act of domestic terrorism, plain and simple.”

“Sadly, it is just the latest example of an individual with malice toward Black Americans being emboldened to inflict violence in furtherance of a distorted and disgusting ideology,” he said in a statement today. 

He pointed to white nationalist and extremist rhetoric, such as the “great replacement theory,” as “a clear factor in this attack and similarly hateful attacks in Buffalo, El Paso, Pittsburgh, and so on.” The conspiracy theory, which has found a home on the far-right fringes, claims a cabal of liberals is seeking to displace the white American population and replace them with nonwhite voters. 

“We all mourn and pray for the victims and their families, but thoughts and prayers without action are meaningless at this point,” Thompson said, urging House Republicans to “join us in examining and working to address violent extremism and domestic terrorism in the coming weeks.”

Saturday's racist shooting in Jacksonville fell on a significant weekend for the Black community. 

It fell two days before, and on the day of the commemoration, of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march on Aug. 28, 1963, was a key milestone in the civil rights movement that saw Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famed “I Have A Dream” speech.

Locally, the shooting happened the weekend Jacksonville was set to remember Ax Handle Saturday. On Aug. 27, 1960, a white mob of about 200 used baseball bats and ax handles to beat peaceful Black protesters decrying lunch counter segregation. 

The rampage also fell five years to the date from another Jacksonville shooting in which a gunman killed two people, before killing himself, at a video game tournament. 

The president of the NAACP's Jacksonville branch has condemned the racist violence and called for gun control in the wake of Saturday's shooting.

"It is deeply disheartening that our Black communities live in constant fear of being targeted based on the color of their skin, unable to shop at their local store without the threat of violence," Isaiah Rumlin said in a statement shared on social media.

"It is particularly poignant that this event occurred on the anniversary of the mass shooting at Jacksonville Landing five years ago and on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington," he said.

Rumlin called the attack a "horrific tragedy" and encouraged the public to urge lawmakers to reconsider a new law that allows Florida residents to carry concealed guns without a permit.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also announced today that a $100,000 donation will be made to support the families of the three people who were killed in the shooting.

“Per the request at yesterday’s vigil, we’re able to do $100,000 to the charity that’s supporting the victims’ families, and those funds are all coming from Volunteer Florida, so were gonna continue to work with those folks in the days and weeks ahead," he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $1 million donation to Edward Waters University today to increase security on campus after the Jacksonville shooter stopped at the historically Black college before launching his shooting spree.

"As I said for the last couple days, we are not gonna allow our HBCUs to be targeted by these people and so we’re going provide security help with them," DeSantis said during a briefing on Tropical Storm Idalia.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the shooter first went to EWU on Saturday where he had “an opportunity to do violence.” The university said in a statement that a security officer on campus engaged with the shooter, asked him to leave and he left without incident.

DeSantis said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is on campus today evaluating security and making recommendations for infrastructure improvements.

Rep. Dianne Hart, chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, called the Jacksonville shooting “senseless” and urged state leaders to address gun violence and “the racism that continues to rear its ugly head in this state.” 

“It is unfortunate and all too often that an individual’s racist feelings have led to the death of innocent people,” she said.

“It should not be lost on us that this incident took place near Edward Waters University, a historically Black university,” she said. “This was not a coincidence, and if our state does not take the proper action now, it unfortunately will not be the last.”

President Joe Biden offered his "full support" to the people of Jacksonville in calls with the city's mayor and sheriff last night, the White House said.

"This evening, President Biden spoke to Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan in the wake of Saturday’s horrific shooting. The President also spoke this evening with Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters," it said.

"In both calls, the President offered his full support to the people of Jacksonville," the White House said.

Saturday's shooting will be "remembered as an act of hatred against Black people of our community," Shad Khan, owner of the football team Jacksonville Jaguars, said in a statement yesterday.

America is "experiencing an epidemic of hate," Vice President Kamala Harris said in the wake of Saturday's deadly shooting.

In a statement yesterday, she noted that federal law enforcement has opened a civil rights probe into the attack and is "treating it as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism."

"As we allow that investigation to proceed, let us continue to speak truth about the moment we are in: America is experiencing an epidemic of hate," Harris said. "Too many communities have been torn apart by hatred and violent extremism. Too many families have lost children, parents, and grandparents. Too many Black Americans live every day with the fear that they will be victims of hate-fueled gun violence—at school, at work, at their place of worship, at the grocery store."

Calling for stronger gun legislation, the vice president said: "Every person in every community in America should have the freedom to live safe from gun violence. And Congress must help secure that freedom by banning assault weapons and passing other commonsense gun safety legislation."

The shooter purchased the guns used in the shooting "100%" legally, authorities said yesterday.

Speaking in a news conference, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said there were no red flags that came up that would have stopped the suspect from being able to purchase guns.

He said the case highlighted the difficulties in preventing a person "with hateful intentions" from accessing firearms.

“There was no criminal record, nothing,” Waters said. He said the only thing on file was a domestic violence call with the shooter's brother. The sheriff also noted that in 2017, the shooter was subject to the Baker Act, which imposes a temporary detention for a mental health examination.

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.

A community is grieving as authorities continue to investigate the deadly shooting at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville on Saturday that saw three Black people slain in what officials say was a hate-motivated attack.

The Jacksonville County Sheriff’s Office identified the three people killed in the shooting as: Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “A.J.” Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29. Dollar General said Laguerre was an employee who was fatally shot along with the other two who were customers.

The shooter was identified as Ryan Palmeter, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said the 21-year-old was a “maniac” who wanted to kill Black people.