Terrifying video shows the moment a gunman enters a Jacksonville Dollar General armed with an AR-15 and then shoots dead three people in a racially-motivated attack.
The gunman was identified as Ryan Palmeter, 21, police confirmed on Sunday. They also detailed a manifesto he left behind, calling it the ‘diary of a madman.’
Palmeter used a rifle covered in Nazi swastikas in the deadly assault on Saturday before turning the gun on himself, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The victims were 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr, 19-year-old Anolt Joseph ‘A.J.’ Laguerre Jr. and 29-year-old Jarrald De’Shawn Gallion.
Sheriff T.K. Waters said the gunman ‘hated black people’ and ‘wanted to kill ‘n******’.’ He described the shooting as a ‘dark day in Jacksonville’s history’.
Both the rifle and handgun were legal and had been purchased legally, Waters said. The firearms dealers ― Wild West Guns and Orange Park Gun and Pawn — followed proper procedures in the sales, he added.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office released this surveillance video of the moments before 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter shot into a car parked at Dollar General and before he started shooting inside the store. He killed three people before killing himself @JSOPIO @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/9cQtHHrFj3
— Taylor Levesque (@TLevesqueTV) August 28, 2023
Palmeter left his home at 11:39am for Jacksonville and texted his father to check his computer.
His horrified parents then called the sheriff’s office at 1.53pm to report the manifesto they found, but he had already begun his assault.
He was reportedly involved in a 2016 domestic call with no arrest and was held under the state’s Baker Act in 2017 which allows people to be involuntarily detained and subject to an examination for up to 72 hours in a mental health hospital.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime by the FBI and local authorities.
The gunman lived in Clay County with his parents and sent a manifesto which detailed his racial hatred to the police and media before the attack.
Palmeter was seen putting on tactical gear at the nearby Edward Waters University (EWU) campus moments before the shooting.
Security at the historically black college tried to detain him but he managed to evade them.
The suspect’s parents called the Sheriff’s Office after they found a concerning manifesto which contained a ‘disgusting ideology of hate.’
‘This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated black people,’ Sheriff T.K. Waters, who is black, said at a news conference.
‘He wanted to kill ‘n******’.’
He added that the gunman was in his 20s armed with a rifle and a handgun and ‘there is absolutely no evidence that the shooter is part of any larger group’ despite using a rifle covered in Nazi swastikas.
‘This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history,’ the sheriff said. ‘Any loss of life is tragic, but the hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak.’
Palmeter, who lived in Clay County with his parents, fatally shot himself before he was caught.
Deputies from Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office were outside Palmeter’s home after the attack.
IF the situation was exactly opposite, and a black shot 3 whites, would it even make the news ? NO, NO, and NO again. We all KNOW this to be true.