Miami, August 28: A 21-year-old gunman who killed three black people in a racially motivated shooting attack in Florida authored the crime statement, which was “the diary of a madman,” says Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters.
On Sunday, the sheriff’s office released new security camera video of gunman Ryan Christopher Palmeter entering a Dollar General store with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol just after 1 p.m. Saturday, Fox News reports.
The store is located in a predominantly black neighborhood in Jacksonville.
The victims have been identified as 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr, 19-year-old Anault-Joseph Laguerre Jr. and 29-year-old Gerald Deshon-Gallion.
According to police, Palmeter, who shot himself after the incident, fired 11 shots at Carr, who was sitting in her car outside the store.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Waters confirmed that Palmeter had no previous criminal history and lived with his parents in County Clay, the BBC reported.
Police said Palmeter wrote several statements to his parents, the media and federal agents, detailing his hatred of black people.
That data, Waters said, “detailed the shooters’ disgusting hate ideology. To put it bluntly: This shooting was racially motivated and hated black people.”
“The statement, quite frankly, is the diary of a madman. He knew what he was doing. He was 100 percent clear. He knew what he was doing, and again, it’s disappointing that anyone would go to such lengths to hurt others. Another person “.
Waters said Palmeter was briefly detained for 72 hours in 2017 under the Baker Act, mental health legislation that allows for the involuntary detention of an individual for treatment.
But the sheriff said his weapons were obtained legally and told reporters the problem was not the availability of weapons, but the killer being a “bad guy”.
At the press conference, CCTV video was played showing the moment Palmeter climbed into the car and killed the first woman with his loaded gun.
A video was then cut of him entering the store.
Waters also confirmed that Palmeter allowed some people to exit the store without being injured.
Also on Sunday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Department of Justice was “investigating this attack as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism,” the BBC reported.
“No person in this country should live in fear of violence fueled by hate, and no family should grieve the loss of a loved one because of bigotry and hate,” he said.
Source: IANS
Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by the WBSETCL team and is auto-generated from syndicated feed.
