Florida shooting: gunman left messages of hate before killing three Black people

Nov 21, 2023

FBI opens civil rights investigation as Jacksonville sheriff names shooter and says suspect had no criminal history

The FBI was investigating the shooting that killed three people inside a store in Jacksonville, Florida, which officials said was racially motivated, as community leaders expressed horror.

A white man, armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun and wearing a tactical vest and mask, entered the discount Dollar General storejust before 2pm on Saturday and shot and killed two men and a woman, before killing himself. All three victims were Black.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the US secretary of homeland security, condemned the shooting, saying his department was closely monitoring the situation.

Mayorkas said: “Too many Americans – in Jacksonville and across our country – have lost a loved one because of racially motivated violence. We are and will continue to provide support to law enforcement and to the Jacksonville community to help keep Floridians safe.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting and will coordinate with the US justice department’s civil rights division, according to a statement released by the FBI Jacksonville field office.

The Jacksonville sheriff, TK Waters, on Sunday named the gunman as Ryan Palmeter, 21, and said that the suspect had no criminal history and had purchased the weapons used in the shooting legally.

Waters had told a news conference on Saturday that the shooter “hated Black people”, adding: “There is absolutely no evidence the shooter is part of any larger group.”

Speaking to WJXT in tears, Jacksonville city councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman said she was angry and that her heart is heavy, adding: “I’m tired of seeing all the shootings … The people in this community are hurting.”

The senior pastor of the St Paul AME church near the site of the shooting commiserated with his 100-strong congregation on Sunday morning.

“Our hearts are broken. If any of you are like me, I’m fighting trying to not be angry,” the Rev Willie Barnes said.

Waters said the shooter, who was in his 20s, used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with at least one of the firearms painted with a swastika. He said the shooter left behind “several manifestos” detailing his hatred for Black people. The writings led investigators to believe that he committed the shooting because it was the fifth anniversary of another Jacksonville shooting.

“The hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak,” Waters said.

The shooter took his own life at the scene. He had driven from neighboring Clay county. Shortly before the attack, the shooter had sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer. The father found writings and the family notified 911, but the shooting had already begun, Waters said.

The shooter is believed to have lived in Clay county with his parents, the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union reported. He previously “was involved in a 2016 domestic call in Clay county with no arrest. Then in 2017 he was Baker-Acted,” the outlet reported Waters saying. The Baker Act, also known as the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, allows the involuntary institutionalization and examination of individuals.

On Sunday, Waters said: “There was no criminal record, nothing.” He said the only thing on file was a domestic violence call with his brother.

“There were no red flags,” he said.

The sheriff said the shooter had been seen at a nearby historically Black college, Edward Waters University (EWU).

He had earlier been turned away from the campus, EWU said in a news release, and the encounter was reported to the Jacksonville sheriff’s office.

“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history. There is no place for hate in this community,” Waters said. “I am sickened by this cowardly shooter’s personal ideology.” He said the investigation will continue and that the shooter’s home is being searched.

Joe Biden and the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, were briefed on the incident.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, after speaking by phone with the sheriff, called the shooter a “scumbag” and denounced his racist motivations.

“‘This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions. He took the coward’s way out,” said DeSantis, who was in Iowa campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.

Sherri Onks, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FBI office, said federal officials had opened a civil rights investigation and would pursue the incident as a hate crime.

“Hate crimes are always and will always remain a top priority for the FBI because they are not only an attack on a victim, they’re also meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community,” Onks said.

The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.

Speaking to CNN a day after the shooting and a demonstration in Washington DC that marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Lutin King Jr’s I Have A Dream speech, Arndrea Waters King, president of the progressive Drum Major Institute thinktank, said: “Yesterday, the same day when we had almost 200,000 people gathering together to stand for democracy in our country, we saw what happens with hate.”

“And for a lot of people that question of why are we coming back together and how different are things from 1963, it unfortunately gave the demonstration of the work and why we are, and where we are, in 2023 compared to 1963, which is not far at all,” King, the wife of Martin Luther King III, added.