Explore More

The three black people killed by a white gunman in what authorities have said was a racially motivated hate crime at a Dollar General store in Florida were identified Sunday — including a 19-year-old employee who was shot dead as he tried to escape.

Store worker AJ Laguerre was named as one of the victims gunned down by racist “maniac” Ryan Palmeter, 21, who targeted the Jacksonville shop just after 1 p.m. Saturday, armed with a Glock pistol and an AR-15-style rifle bedecked with swastikas, authorities said.

Angela Michelle Carr, 52, was shot dead in a hail of 11 bullets as she sat in her car in the parking lot outside the store, and Jerrald Gallion, 29, was murdered as he entered the shop alongside his girlfriend, Sheriff TK Waters said.

Numerous other people in the store managed to flee unharmed out a back door while Palmeter chased after and shot at them, the sheriff said.

Waters said Palmeter allowed some people to leave the store at one point — some of whom were white — but that authorities were still investigating that part of the shooting.

Palmeter — who turned the gun on himself moments after authorities arrived — acted alone in his racist rampage, authorities said.

“There is absolutely no evidence that the shooter is part of any larger group,” Waters told reporters.

“This was, quite frankly, a maniac who decided he wanted to take lives,” the sheriff said. “He targeted a certain group a people, and that’s black people, that’s what he said he wanted to kill. And that’s very clear.”

Palmeter left behind a suicide note and several racist manifestos on the computer at his parents’ house in Clay County where he lived, authorities said.

“The manifesto is, quite frankly, the diary of a madman,” said Waters. “He was just completely irrational. But with irrational thoughts, he knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid.”

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated black people,” Waters said. “He wanted to kill n——.”

The guns Palmeter used were purchased legally in April and June, despite him having been involuntarily institutionalized for mental health in 2017, though he was released after an examination.

Waters noted the guns were purchased completely legally and that the stores had followed all procedures properly.

Palmeter’s parents also called police over a domestic dispute between him and a sibling in 2016, but nobody was arrested, police said.

Just before the shooting, Palmeter was spotted nearby at the historically black Edward Waters University, but left after security guards confronted him.

Witnesses said Palmeter was seen wearing a mask, a tactical vest and gloves before he left the school, and police said he posted a TikTok video while he was in the parking lot showing him putting on tactical gear.

It is unclear whether he initially intended to stage the attack at the school. Waters noted he had multiple opportunities to harm people nearby but did not.

“Any member of that race at that time was in danger — of the black race,” Waters said.

As police entered the building, about 20 minutes after the shooting started, Waters said, Palmeter locked himself in the store office and texted his father, telling him to break into his room and check his computer for the manifestos.

The family notified the police, but by then, it was too late.

FBI investigators are treating the shooting as a hate crime.

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j3Fma29fq7akwMimqmanlmK%2Foq%2FIrKtmpZGowG6%2Fx6imraGenHqiwIyfo6iqmZmubrDOpaOaql2csq%2Bx0ZqjZqGUmru1tcWinJ1n