Palmeter donned a bulletproof vest and mask before heading to the Dollar General store less than a mile away and opening fire, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters (R) said in an interview on CNN on Saturday. Armed with an AR-15-type rifle inscribed with German Nazi insignia and a handgun, he killed two male victims, ages 19 and 29, inside the store, and one female victim, age 52, in the car park outside at the store before fatally shooting himself.
The shooter believed to have acted alone and did not know the victims. Local law enforcement said that he “hated Black people” and left behind evidence that the attack was racially motivated. Around 30 percent of Jacksonville’s 970,000 residents are Black.
Waters said in a Saturday news conference said Palmeter detailed a “disgusting ideology of hate” toward Black people in several manifestos that he wrote before the attack. The FBI’s Jacksonville office is investigating the shooting as a hate crime, the agency said in a statement posted on social media.
“The Justice Department is investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Sunday. He also extended condolences to “the loved ones of the victims and to the Jacksonville community as they mourn an unimaginable loss.”
Palmeter lived in Clay County with his parents, and headed to Jacksonville in neighboring Duval County at around 11:39 a.m., where he messaged his father, asking him to check his computer. His father alerted authorities but by that time — just before 2 p.m. — the shooting was already underway, Waters said.
Edward Waters University, which has about 1,200 students, went into lockdown Saturday. Access was restricted to the college until the all-clear was given at 4:35 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, the college said.
“Join the entire Edward Waters University Community as we gather to pray for our Nation, State, City, and Community — particularly our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and all those impacted by [yesterday’s] heinous act of racial violence,” the university said in a social media posting Sunday morning.
Law enforcement officials have begun probing Palmeter’s background after it was revealed he was previously held in 2017 under a state rule called the Baker Act, which allows people to be held for examination for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis. He was also involved in what officers described as a “domestic call” in 2016, though was not arrested at the time.
The deadly attack represents the 34th mass killing in the United States, according to the Mass Killing Database maintained by Northeastern University, USA Today and the Associated Press. It occurred on the same day as thousands gathered in Washington to warn that racial progress in America is being unraveled at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the day that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 250,000 people in the March on Washington.
Relatives of King, who spoke at the event, later expressed sorrow over the killings, adding that they are evidence of the urgent need to continue to address racial injustice in America.
“It’s so tragic. We have got to, as a society, find a way to navigate through issues. You don’t have to like me, but we have to understand how to deal civilly with issues and we’ve got to do something to change that,” Martin Luther King III said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
At a church service roughly three miles from the shooting location, tearful mourners gathered on Sunday, including Jacksonville’s Mayor Donna Deagan (D), where a pastor urged people to avoid allowing sadness to turn to rage. “If any of you are like me, I’m fighting trying to not be angry,” the Rev. Willie Barnes told about 100 congregants, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The attack follows at least two other public shootings in recent days, including one at an Oklahoma high school football game that left a teen dead and another incident that saw at least seven injured when a shooter opened fire near a Boston parade.
It also comes also comes just 15 months after 10 Black people were killed during another racially motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York by an 18-year-old White man.
A vigil for the Jacksonville victims of the shooting is set for 5:30 p.m. in Jacksonville on Sunday. Officials including the mayor, the sheriff and other local leaders are expected to attend, according to local media reports.
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