Sheriff investigating racist shooter Palmeter says guns not to blame

The Florida sheriff investigating racist mass shooter Ryan Palmeter (pictured centre) has said guns are not the problem and ‘wicked’ people are to blame for such tragedies. Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters (pictured left) said the 21-year-old, who fatally shot three black people at a Dollar General store in the city this weekend, possessed his weapons legally.

Palmeter walked into the store on Saturday armed with two firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle adorned with swastikas and opened fire in what police are calling a hate crime. He shot and killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Anolt Joseph “A.J.” Laguerre Jr., 29, and Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 19, before turning the weapon on himself. Investigating Sheriff TK Waters told a press conference on Sunday that guns were not to blame. ‘The story’s always about guns. It’s the people that [are] bad,’ he said. ‘This guy’s a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It’ll sit there. But as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it, there’s the problem. The problem is the individual.’ 

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The firearms dealers ― Wild West Guns and Orange Park Gun and Pawn — followed proper procedures in the sales, he added. Sheriff TK Waters said he doesn’t believe there is any ‘racial divide’ in the city and that Palmeter’s ‘manifesto’ is ‘quite frankly the diary of a madman. He was completely irrational, but he was 100% lucid – he knew what he was doing,’ the sheriff said. Those who knew the killer have started sharing details about his life, including neighbors who knew his parents and believe he had just been taken off medication. Terrifying footage captured the racist entering the Jacksonville Dollar General before he shot dead the three victims and then turned the gun on himself.

Authorities said he was spotted trying to enter a local historically Black college, Edward Waters University, on Saturday before heading to the Dollar General store. Palmeter had refused to identify himself to a campus officer and was turned away. ‘It was later determined that the individual would be involved in a shooting near EWU campus,’ the university said. Palmeter left a detailed manifesto behind, which police have called the ‘diary of a madman.’ Sheriff T.K. Waters previously said the gunman ‘hated black people’ and ‘wanted to kill [Expletive].’ He described the shooting as a ‘dark day in Jacksonville’s history’. Pictured: Jerrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29, is shown with relative Demornae Gibbs.

A federal civil rights investigation has been launched, and officials are treating the shooting as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism. Palmeter left his home at 11:39am for Jacksonville and texted his father to check his computer. His horrified parents then called the sheriff’s office at 1.53pm to report the manifesto they found, but he had already begun his assault. Palmeter was seen putting on tactical gear at the nearby Edward Waters University (EWU) campus moments before the shooting. Security at the historically black college tried to detain him but he managed to evade them. Pictured: Victim Angela Michelle Carr(right).

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