Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis was booed by supporters at vigil for in Jacksonville for three victims killed in the “racially motivated” attack at a local Dollar General.
On Sunday DeSantis and his wife attended the vigil to try and show their support but were quickly met with boo’s and harsh words at the Grand Park neighborhood. As DeSantis approached the podium to speak, some people in the crowd began to boo; one person yelled out, “You’re not welcome here.” Later, someone shouted, “Your policies caused this,” according to videos of the event. As governor, DeSantis has loosened the state’s guns laws, and curbed efforts to teach Black history in public schools.
DeSantis continued to try and speak but could barley get a word out with all the commotion once people noticed he was there. Eventually the microphone was taken away from him by Jacksonville councilwoman Ju’coby Pittman. After snatching the mic Pittman told the crowd “Put parties aside, a bullet don’t know a party.”
As we previously reported, officials announced Sunday that Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21, is the man who went on this “racially motivated killing” at a local Dollar General store. All three victims were Black, and the suspect detailed a “disgusting ideology of hate” in writings, according to Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters. “Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Waters said of the suspect.
The gunman was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun and outfitted in a tactical vest when he shot three people — two men and a woman — before turning the gun on himself, according to Waters. No other injuries were reported in the shooting. “This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history,” Waters said. “As a member of this Jacksonville community, I am sickened by this cowardly shooter’s personal ideology of hate.”
RELATED: Kamala Harris Turns Down Ron DeSantis’ Invitation To Discuss Florida Curriculum
Palmeter had authored several manifestos, for his parents, the media and federal agents, detailing his hatred of Black people, police said.
Mr Waters said those 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”. Mr Waters said Palmeter had been briefly detained for 72 hours in 2017 under the Baker Act, mental health legislation that allows the involuntary detainment of an individual for treatment.