Speakers at a vigil Sunday proclaimed Jacksonville, Florida, a city intolerant to racial violence, even as they mourned the victims of a mass shooting by a man a county official had described as a racist âmaniac.â
“This does not define Jacksonville, Florida,” the official, Sheriff T.K. Waters, said at the event Sunday. “One evil man … cannot shake our resolve.”
City Council member JuâCoby Pittman, who organized the vigil, said she was heartbroken.
âIâm sick and tired of being sick and tired,â she said. âThese residents didnât deserve what happened. They didnât deserve this.â
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was initially booed but ultimately was granted an audience, noted that the shooter was not from Jacksonville, the stateâs most populous city.
âYou had a major-league scumbag come from Clay County up here,â he said, âand what he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida.â
With defiance usually shown to reporters or political foes as he seeks the Republican nomination for president, DeSantis vowed to protect Jacksonville, its Black community and Floridaâs historically Black colleges and universities from racial violence.
âWe are not going to let people be targeted based on their race,â he said. âWe are going to stand up, and we are going to do what we need to do to make sure that evil does not triumph in the state of Florida.â
On Saturday afternoon, the shooter, whom the sheriff identified as Ryan Palmeter, 21, of Orange Park, stopped at Edward Waters University, a historically Black institution, got out of his vehicle behind a library and was quickly confronted by campus security, who told him to leave, according to Waters and to a statement from the institution.
He drove to a nearby Dollar General store, where he opened fire, killing Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph âAJâ Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jarrald DeâShaun Gallion, 29, Waters said.
All the victims were Black, and Waters said the shooter left behind messages indicating a belief in white superiority.
On Saturday, Waters had described the man as âquite frankly a maniac who decided he wanted to take lives.â
He confirmed Sunday that the shooter was wearing a tactical bullet-resistant vest and was armed with a Palmetto PA-15 semi-automatic rifle, which is a clone of an AR-15. He also had a Glock semi-automatic handgun, Waters said.
The man fatally shot himself after he was cornered by law enforcement, authorities said.
âIâve spent 32 years in this career,â Waters, who is Black, said at the vigil, which was held down the street from the crime scene. âAnd Iâve seen some horrible, horrible things. But not much rivals what I saw yesterday.â
Stepping away from the gathering, two women whose lives are linked to Gallion, one of the victims, through his daughter shared memories of a great father and friend.
âJarrald was a very loving, caring father,â said Sabrina Rozier, a grandmother of Gallion’s child. âFrom the time my daughter got pregnant till up till yesterday, Jarrald never missed a beat. … Every weekend, when they did split up, he still got his daughter.
“He was supposed to be with her yesterday. Weâre still trying to find the words to tell her that her daddy is gone. I donât have the words to tell her, to break her heart. … This man saw fit to break my granddaughterâs heart and take her daddy away.”
Rozier’s daughter, Tyesha Jones, is the mother of Gallion’s daughter.
âHe was my best friend,â she said âHe was my daughterâs best friend. Even with us not being together, we were the best of friends. He got her every weekend. He was the best daddy ever. Iâm just going to miss him.â
Keita McNeill, Gallion’s brother, said he collapsed at the news of the slaying.
âI just got on the floor and started crying,â he said. âHe didnât deserve it. All that man did was work and take care of his child.â
In an earlier video conference call, Anolt Laguerre, the father of Dollar General cashier AJ Laguerre, said his son recently graduated from high school and was just experiencing his first taste of adulthood.
âHe hasnât even lived his life yet,â Laguerre said Sunday. âFor someone to take his life away â it is outrageous â because he doesnât like the color of your skin.â
The Anti-Defamation League said this year that antisemitic, racist and anti-LGBTQ propaganda was at âall-time high.â In 2021, the White House concluded that the most âpersistent and lethalâ threats to the U.S. were coming from âracially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.â
Despite earlier assurances that Jacksonville is no place for Saturdayâs horror, some of the cityâs prominent voices said thereâs work to be done to ensure the Black community doesnât live in a state of fear.
Vigil speaker Terresa White, the pastor at the city’s Heritage Christian Center, said the victims deserve a legacy of change.
“We will make sure that they have a celebration of their lives but will make a difference in this community,” she said. “We can admit that thereâs a problem. And we can admit that we have actions to take.”