On Saturday (August 26, US local time) at noon, a gunman went on a shooting spree and killed three African-Americans in Jacksonville city in Florida State of the United States.
As per reports, the incident took place inside a Dollar General Store. The attacker was identified as a 21-year-old white supremacist, Ryan Palmeter. While speaking about the matter, Jacksonville Sheriff K. Waters said, “This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people.”
Palmeter shot himself with his assault rifle after killing three victims (two men and a woman). He had left behind a manifesto, detailing his hatred for the Black community.
The white supremacist terrorist who carried out the anti-Black killings in Jacksonville has been identified as Ryan Palmeter pic.twitter.com/SQkE9efnFL
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) August 27, 2023
The gunman reportedly lived with his parents in the Clay County of Florida. He asked his father to check his computer, following which the man found ‘manifestos’ and called the police. By the time the authorities were alerted, Ryan Palmeter had already begun killing people at the Dollar General store.
He was earlier spotted on the campus of a historically black school named Edward Waters University. The attacker was refused entry after he failed to identify himself.
Jacksonville Sheriff K Waters informed, “He took that opportunity to put his bulletproof vest on outside and to put his mask on outside and then proceed to the store where he committed this horrible act.”
New: The Jacksonville mass shooter left a manifesto saying he hated Black people. His assault weapon was covered with swastikas.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 26, 2023
🔗https://t.co/ULtqgMIDFK pic.twitter.com/QDS6RbjEvC
According to the investigators, Ryan Palmeter was a lone-wolf attacker, who was in possession of a tactical vest, mask, handgun and an AR-15-style rifle. FBI’s special agent Sherri Onks assured that the incident would be pursued as a hate crime incident.
It has now come to light that the Jacksonville attacker was previously evaluated for a mental health crisis in 2017. He was involuntarily detained under the Baker Act of Florida, which allows law enforcement authorities to subject an individual to mental health examination for up to 72 hours.
An individual detained under the Baker Act is ineligible to purchase firearms. It remains unknown as to how Ryan Palmeter was able to procure a handgun and an assault rifle. He coincided the attack with another mass shooting at a Jacksonville gaming event, which took place exactly 5 years ago and killed 2 people.
BREAKING: @GovRonDeSantis condemns the racially motivated mass shooting in Jacksonville and offers his full support to Sheriff TK Waters pic.twitter.com/S0cQzV4qTY
— Brendon Leslie (@BrendonLeslie) August 26, 2023
While condemning the incident, Florida Governor De Santis said, “This shooting based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this was racially motivated…He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable.”
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions, and so he took the coward’s way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms,” he further added.
According to the data posted by the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 471 mass shootings since January 2023 in the United States.
