Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference on Sunday that Ryan Christopher Palmeter, the shooter who killed three people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon, before turning the gun on himself, left behind manifestos that depicted his hatred for Black people.
Palmeter, 21, authored several manifestos, for his parents, the media and federal agents. On Saturday, he fired eleven rounds at one woman sitting in her car in Jacksonville, before he entered a shop and shot two other people.
Waters said that the manifestos “detailed the shooters disgusting ideology of hate”. “Finely put: this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people. The manifesto is, quite frankly… the diary of a madman”, he said. “He knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid. He knew what he was doing and again, it’s disappointing that anyone would go to these lengths to hurt someone else”.
Also Read | Who is William Hardison Sr, active shooter in Pittsburgh’s Garfield?
Mayor Donna Deegan said it was a “hate-filled crime” driven by racial hate.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Sunday the Justice Department was “investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism”.
“No person in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence and no family should have to grieve the loss of a loved one to bigotry and hate,” he said.
At the press conference, it was also revealed that Palmeter had no previous criminal history and lived with his parents in Clay County. He had, however, been detained for 72 hours in 2017 under the Baker Act, which is the mental health legislation. The law allowed the involuntary detainment of an individual for treatment.
He had acquired weapons legally. The sheriff told reporters the issue was not with the availability of guns, but with the shooting suspect being “a bad guy”. He also requested people not to “look for sense in a senseless act of violence”.
