Ryan Christopher Palmer, in a picture from the company’s security cameras, in which he murdered three people in Florida. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (via Portal)
The white supremacist who killed three black men at a facility in Jacksonville, Fla., in a racially motivated shooting on Saturday before committing suicide was a 21-year-old with no criminal record and had legally acquired his guns, the sheriff said City, TK Waters, in a press conference.
The shooter, Ryan Christopher Palmer, lived with his parents in an area on the outskirts of Jacksonville. In the young man’s bedroom, his father found a suicide note, a will, and “several manifestos” to his parents, the police, and the media, detailing his hatred of black people.
“He didn’t have a criminal record, nothing,” the sheriff said. “There were no warning signs.” Police have only found one domestic violence complaint related to his brother. Waters also specified that as of 2017, Palmer was in a psychiatric hospital, where state law allows entry into such a facility against the patient’s will during a mental health crisis.
In a statement, United States President Joe Biden noted that Saturday’s shooting came on the same day as the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington that Martin Luther King led to demand civil rights and equality for black people. “We must refuse to live in a country where black families who go shopping or black students who go to class are afraid of being shot because of the color of their skin.” has aimed.
The Attorney General (Minister of Justice), Merrick Garland, has also said in a statement that his department is investigating the shooting as a hate crime and a “racially motivated act of violent extremism”.
Before the shooting, Palmer had been hanging around near Edward Waters College, a small college with traditionally mostly black students, trying to get onto campus. A security guard asked him for ID, and when the young man refused to provide it, he was denied entry to the premises. “It was later determined that this individual would be involved in a shooting near the university,” the institution said.
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As he left, he was seen donning a bulletproof vest and covering his face with a mask. He went to the store, a branch of discount chain Dollar General, and opened fire on a 52-year-old woman, Angela Michelle Carr, who was sitting in her vehicle parked in front of the store. Inside, he shot and killed Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre, 19, and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29.
Palmer was armed with a Glock pistol and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on which he had painted white swastikas. This was the 471st shooting in the United States so far this year, more than two a day.
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