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Saturday afternoon, a small man entered a Jacksonville, Florida Dollar General with some large guns — specifically, a Glock and an AR-15, which he fired at three people, killing them.
Jacksonville is 30 percent Black, more than twice the national average, but the victims’ race was not a coincidence. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters confirmed at a press conference Saturday night that the suspect “targeted a certain group of people, and that’s Black people.”
True to a sadly consistent form, the shooter was decked out in a tactical vest and mask. Along with the AR-15, he was also carrying a Glock. He even went to the sick effort of plastering swastikas on his guns, according to Waters.
The shooter, a white man in his early 20s, lived with his parents in Jacksonville’s Clay County, where the population is much whiter. He’d vomited out “several manifestos” recently and sent copies to the media, federal agents, and his parents. CBS News reports that at “1:18 p.m. local time, the shooter told his father to check his computer, and by 1:53 p.m. the shooter’s family called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Waters said.”
By then, it was too late. He was already well into his racist murder spree. He first attempted to target students at the historically black college, Edward Waters University, but campus security turned him away. That’s when he went to the Dollar General.
Afterward, he barricaded himself inside the store and took his own life, and while the world is better without him, he inflicted untold damage during his brief stay.
The gunman’s rambling diatribes revealed what Waters described as his “disgusting ideology of hate.” The killer made clear that the shooting was “racially-motivated, and he hated Black people.”
Waters added that the gunman apparently “acted completely alone” and was not believed to be part of “any large group.” That is perhaps technically true, but we should realize that white supremacy doesn’t require a membership card and monthly dues. These racists are linked through hateful rhetoric easily found online and on cable television. It doesn’t take much to turn them to violence.
The suspect was previously involved in a 2016 domestic incident for which he was not arrested, Waters disclosed. In 2017, Waters said, he was also committed under Florida’s Baker Act, which is a law that allows law enforcement officers and certain medical personnel to involuntarily institutionalize people who could be considered a harm to themselves or others for up to 72 hours, per CBS Miami.
When not accusing Mickey Mouse of sampling Minnie’s wardrobe, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has only helped make it easier for unhinged people to freely access weapons of death. He signed into law a permit-less carry bill, which means that anyone can carry a gun in public without training or a background check. It went into effect in July.
CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales said on Saturday that she’d texted with with DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern and “asked specifically if [DeSantis] plans to deviate away from his campaigning for president of the United States to go and fly to Jacksonville.” Redfern said he’d “let you know,” which is what you say when you’re definitely not going to a co-worker’s party. Great governing there.
DeSantis did condemn the shooting in a paltry video recording and called the gunman a “scumbag” who “took the coward’s way out” rather than “face the music.” Yes, those were the words he used, but we didn’t really imagine he’s capable of expressing actual empathy or addressing the racial hatred that threatens minorities daily.
Jacksonville’s newly elected Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan was present and the scene and later at the news conference with Sheriff Waters. Not surprisingly, she is far better than DeSantis at demonstrating true human feeling.
“I’m heartbroken,” she said. “This is a community that has suffered again and again. There were so many people out today, obviously grieving, upset. It’s something that should not and must not continue to happen. You see the swastikas on the gun … we must do everything we can to dissuade this type of hate … We’ve seen it too much.”
August 28 is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a powerful speech from which people like DeSantis selectively recall only a couple lines. But Dr. King was not satisfied with platitudes. He said, “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, when will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
And we can never be satisfied as long as three Black people are the victims of unspeakable horrors in a Jacksonville Dollar General.
[CBS News]
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