ATLANTA — The Jacksonville community is coming together after the racist and deadly shooting.
Three people were killed at a Dollar General store just outside Edward Waters University Saturday night. The school is one of the country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The victims were all Black.
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The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, 21-year-old Ryan Palmater who is white, first stopped at the university, but he was confronted by a campus security guard, so he left.
They said Palmeter then went down the street to the Dollar General, where he shot and killed 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr,19-year-old Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr. and 29-year-old Jarrald De’Shaun Gallion. All three were Black.
On Sunday, police released new video of Palmeter outside in the store’s parking lot. He was dressed in armor gear and had his gun. It shows him walking up and pointing the gun at a car.
Police said that’s when he fired at the first victim.
They said he then walked into the store and started shooting again before eventually shooting and killing himself
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“My initial thought was is this ever going to stop? Whether it’s Jacksonville, Atlanta or anywhere else in the country, at some point this has to stop. Can we all just get along?” said Isaiah Bibbs.
Bibbs, who lives in Atlanta, was in Jacksonville when the shooting happened. He was raised in Jacksonville and was there helping his mom and nephews run errands on Saturday when the shooting happened.
He told Channel 2′s Larry Spruill he’s in disbelief over another mass shooting and that the victims were targeted because they were black.
“I’m like man. It’s a continuous cycle. No matter what the place or event. What the situation is, people still have that hatred for African Americans,” said Bibbs.
He immediately recognized where it had happened.
“At the Dollar General. We were like wait what?” Bibbs said.
Bibbs said he believes the community is demanding some sort of change in gun laws. But he also says there is a bigger issue at play in this and other incidents.
“It had to come from somewhere. He didn’t just wake up and start thinking, ‘I want to target these individuals. It had to start somewhere,” Bibbs said.
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On Sunday, there was a vigil to honor the three victims.
Also on Sunday, President Joe Biden expressed his condolences, releasing this statement:
“On Saturday, our nation marked the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington — a seminal moment in our history and in our work towards equal opportunity for all Americans. But this day of remembrance and commemoration ended with yet another American community wounded by an act of gun violence, reportedly fueled by hate-filled animus and carried out with two firearms.
Yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida a white gunman went on a shooting rampage at a store near a Historically Black University and killed three Black individuals. While we still need to learn more about the motivation for Saturday’s shooting, law enforcement has opened a federal civil rights investigation and is treating this incident as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.
Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America. We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. Hate must have no safe harbor. Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent.
Jill and I are praying for the victims and their families, and we grieve with the people of Jacksonville.”
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