Florida shoot: “It wasn't a fluke. He was a racist.”
“White supremacy has no place in the U.S.,” Biden says after racially motivated massacre in Florida. A white man killed two men and a woman — all three black victims — before fatally shooting himself injured.
Photo: Global Look Press
Joe Biden said on Sunday that “white supremacy has no place in America” after three people were killed in a racist shooting in Florida, and it was revealed that the shooter had been expelled from the historically black educational institution (HBCU) moments before he opened fire in discount stores.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday called the gunman involved in the attack a “hateful lunatic” and said, “We will not allow historically black colleges to be targeted.”
The FBI is investigating Saturday's shooting as a hate crime after officials said the attack at the Dollar General Store in Jacksonville, Fla., was racially motivated, and community leaders also expressed horror.
A white man armed with a high-powered rifle and a handgun wearing a tactical vest and mask entered the store shortly before 2pm on Saturday and killed two men and a woman before fatally injuring himself. All three victims were black.
T.K. Waters, the Jacksonville sheriff, named the victims Sunday afternoon and said the gunman was caught on video shooting Angela Michelle Carr, a 52-year-old woman, in her car outside the Dollar General. He then entered the store where he killed 19-year-old Anolto Joseph Laguerra Jr. and 29-year-old Gerald De'Shawn Gallion.
Sherri Onks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Jacksonville office. , said federal officials have opened a civil rights investigation and will treat the incident as a hate crime.
“Hate crimes have always been and will continue to be a top priority for the FBI because they are not just an attack on the victim, they are also designed to threaten and intimidate the entire community,” Oncks said.
Waters also On Sunday, the shooter was identified as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmerter, who purchased the gun legally and had no criminal record. He lived with his parents in the suburbs of Jacksonville and left a suicide note.
Palmer obtained his gun legally despite being involuntarily sent for a mental health evaluation in 2017, according to the Associated Press.
According to Waters, Palmer purchased the gun in April and June and the seller followed all necessary laws and procedures, including background checks .
Waters already said Saturday that the shooter “hated black people” and left behind “several manifestos” describing such hatred.
“The Manifesto is, quite frankly, a madman's diary,” Waters said. “He was completely irrational. But despite his irrational thoughts, he knew what he was doing. He was 100% conscious.”
Palmer was reportedly spotted Saturday at the private, historically black college at Edward Waters University (EWU) in Jacksonville near the library. There, he was questioned by security after he refused to identify himself and turned away, EWU said in a news release. The man fled and the university said the collision was reported to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
“He had the opportunity to use violence at [Edward Waters University], but he didn't. There were people in very close proximity,” the Associated Press reports.
The university said it will hold a prayer vigil Sunday night for the university community, “especially for our students, faculty, staff and alumni. and all those who suffered yesterday's heinous act of racial violence.”
After a service earlier in the day, about 200 people came to a Sunday evening vigil a block from the Dollar General Store. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking to run for president, loosened gun laws and antagonized civil rights leaders by mocking “vigilanteism,” was loudly booed as he addressed the crowd.
DeSantis told the crowd. that the shooter was “major league scum” and declared in Florida, “We will not allow people to be targeted because of their race.”
Shortly after DeSantis' speech, Jeffrey Ramlin, pastor of Dayspring Church in Jacksonville, took the microphone and he said of the shooter: “After all, with all due respect, Governor, he was no slob. He was a racist.”
President Biden issued a White House statement Sunday saying many details about the crime are still unknown: “While we continue to seek answers, we must state clearly and convincingly that white supremacy has no place in America.”
It read: “We must refuse to live in a country where black families walking into a store or black students walking into school live in fear of being shot because of the color of their skin. Hate should not have a safe harbor. Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent.
Biden also noted that the shooting occurred on the same day as a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C. on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech “I Have a Dream,” which the president called “a pivotal moment in our history and our work to provide equal opportunity for all Americans.” in a violent act that was allegedly motivated by hatred. and is carried out with two types of firearms.”
Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential candidate, on Saturday called the shooter “scum” and denounced his racist motives, calling him a coward for taking his own life.
“Committing this kind of violence is unacceptable and attacks against people because of their race have no place in the state of Florida,” DeSantis added.
On Sunday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department was “investigating this attack as a hate crime. and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.”
On Sunday morning, Arndrea Waters King, president of the progressive think tank Drum Major Institute and wife of Martin Luther King III, told CNN: “Yesterday, the same day that nearly 200,000 people came together to speak for democracy in our country, we saw what happens to hate.”
She added: “And for many people, this issue is why we come back together and how everything is different from 1963, unfortunately the work showed and why we are and where we are in 2023 compared to 1963, which is not far away.”