3 people dead after gunman targeted Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, officials say

[essentialsaltes]

Three people were killed Saturday in a racially motivated attack after a gunman targeted Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in one of several weekend shootings that again shocked Americans in public places – from stores to football games to parades.

“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening.

Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.

The sheriff said investigators believe the gunman acted alone and wore both a tactical vest and mask during the attack. He was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun.

The shooter was the subject of a 2017 law enforcement call under the Baker Act, which allows people to be involuntarily detained and subject to an examination for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis.

Deegan said the shooter’s writings indicated he was aware of a mass shooting at a Jacksonville gaming event where two people were killed exactly five years earlier, and may have chosen the date of his attack to coincide with that anniversary.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Waters said the shooter, who was in his 20s, was armed with a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, with at least one painted with a swastika.

 

[FireDragon76]

I want to know how somebody who was Baker Acted can get guns like AR-15's? Our system is failing if we allow mentally ill people easy access to assault rifles.

 

[Desk trauma]

Three people were killed Saturday in a racially motivated attack after a gunman targeted Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in one of several weekend shootings that again shocked Americans in public places – from stores to football games to parades.

It strains credulity to say people are shocked.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Three people were killed Saturday in a racially motivated attack after a gunman targeted Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in one of several weekend shootings that again shocked Americans in public places – from stores to football games to parades.

“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference early Saturday evening.

Waters said the shooter, who he described as a White man in his 20s, shot and killed himself after the attack. The suspect left behind what the sheriff described as three manifestos outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.

The sheriff said investigators believe the gunman acted alone and wore both a tactical vest and mask during the attack. He was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun.

The shooter was the subject of a 2017 law enforcement call under the Baker Act, which allows people to be involuntarily detained and subject to an examination for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis.

Deegan said the shooter’s writings indicated he was aware of a mass shooting at a Jacksonville gaming event where two people were killed exactly five years earlier, and may have chosen the date of his attack to coincide with that anniversary.

Sad.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I want to know how somebody who was Baker Acted can get guns like AR-15's? Our system is failing if we allow mentally ill people easy access to assault rifles.

Well he was detained for 72 hours...but I'm not familiar with the Baker Act. It doesn't make it clear if he was diagnosed.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

It strains credulity to say people are shocked.

Not only that. Some,imho, are secretly applauding.

 

[wing2000]

@ a prayer vigil on Sunday:

DeSantis then told the crowd the gunman was "a major-league scumbag" and said in Florida "we're not going to let people be targeted based on their race."

Shortly after DeSantis spoke, Jeffrey Rumlin, a pastor at the Dayspring Church in Jacksonville, took the microphone and said of the shooter: "At the end of the day, respectfully, governor, he was not a scumbag. He was a racist."

Jacksonville shooter killed Black shoppers with legally purchased guns

The white gunman who shot and killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday was a 21-year-old who bought his guns legally and had no criminal history, local law enforcement said on Sunday.

www.reuters.com

 

[Larniavc]

I want to know how somebody who was Baker Acted can get guns like AR-15's?

Is this a serious question? ANYONE can get a gun if they want to. It's easier than buying booze in some cases. And racism certainly won't make it any harder.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

DeSantis then told the crowd the gunman was "a major-league scumbag" and said in Florida "we're not going to let people be targeted based on their race."

His talk is cheap and ,imho, just ear tickling.I wonder what he plans to do to stop racism.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I want to know how somebody who was Baker Acted can get guns like AR-15's? Our system is failing if we allow mentally ill people easy access to assault rifles.

Because Palmeter was released after the examination, that would have not shown up on his background checks.

I don't know if it's significant, but the timeline suggests he was 15 or so at the time of that incident.

Other details: Murderer originally showed up at an HBCU, thought possibly to be his original target. Campus police pulled up next to him, and he drove away. Campus police called a sheriff, who was about to alert the department when the shooting began at the store.

 

[FireDragon76]

Maybe this is progress. Instead of thoughts and prayers, DeSantis offers insults and harsh words.

 

[dzheremi]

I want to know how somebody who was Baker Acted can get guns like AR-15's? Our system is failing if we allow mentally ill people easy access to assault rifles.

That's what I'm wondering. I'm not sure it's the same thing, but I had to have my father 5150'd a few years ago because he was experiencing dementia-like symptoms and yet determined to get in his truck and drive somewhere (and tried to fight me when I told him he wouldn't be doing that). Even though the observation period (which I remember being 48 hours, not 72) passed without incident because he was back to reality by some point in the hospital (he suffered from Hepatic Encephalopathy for the last ~5 years of his life, so he'd go in and out of these altered mental states at random), the police who originally answered my call took his pistol away and never gave it back. Not even when he went to the station in our little hometown to demand it back because he was moving to Idaho.

It seems like the Baker Act might be a step further than what I had to do, yet this young man was still allowed access to guns. That's very strange to me. This seems like a tragedy that could've been either entirely prevented, or at least made considerably more difficult to accomplish than it ultimately was.

I think if I were from any other place in the world and looking in on America from the outside, I would feel very anxious about ever going there. There are simply too many mentally unwell people and too many guns, and that's never a good mix.

 

[FireDragon76]

It's 2023... the real question is why are crazy people not angry at the CIA, like normal crazy people? Why are they angry at minorities? It couldn't have anything to do with certain political factions basically using code and dog whistles to pin all the ill of America on them (like the recent "riggers in Atlanta" meme), now could it?

 

[essentialsaltes]

The man, identified Sunday as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter of Clay County, Fla., on Saturday drove to Edward Waters University, a historically Black college, but was refused entry, according to the school. He then drove to the nearby store, where he opened fire using an AR-15-style rifle inscribed with Nazi insignia, authorities said.

Jacksonville police on Sunday said law enforcement had been called about Palmeter previously in a domestic incident, and he also had been held during a mental health crisis. But those cases did not result in a criminal record, so there was no legal reason to stop him from acquiring the guns he purchased this year between April and July.

--

Context from 5 years ago.

"How do we make sure that individuals with mental illness do not touch a gun," Governor Rick Scott asked Thursday morning.

But as Florida's Governor calls for change following a Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County Wednesday, we found laws on guns and the mentally ill remain full of exceptions.

According to state law, while people institutionalized against their will, commonly known as the Baker Act, are prohibited from purchasing firearms, those who voluntarily commit themselves and stay on a voluntary status can obtain guns. In addition, if a doctor determines a person's "dangerousness" is not imminent, Florida laws says they can buy guns.

 

[FireDragon76]

President Biden released a statement Sunday afternoon condemning the attack, noting there was added symbolism in the killings “fueled by hate-filled animus” that took place on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

I don't think this was a coincidence. Somebody was trying to send a very ugly message.