Tuesday, October 15, 2024
HomeNews ReportsUnited States: White supremacist goes on a shooting spree in Florida, kills 3 African...

United States: White supremacist goes on a shooting spree in Florida, kills 3 African Americans, was earlier evaluated for mental health crisis

According to the investigators, Ryan Palmeter was a lone-wolf attacker, who was in possession of a tactical vest, mask, handgun and an AR-15-style rifle.

On Saturday (August 26, US local time) at noon, a gunman went on a shooting spree and killed three African-Americans in Jacksonville city in Florida State of the United States.

As per reports, the incident took place inside a Dollar General Store. The attacker was identified as a 21-year-old white supremacist, Ryan Palmeter. While speaking about the matter, Jacksonville Sheriff K. Waters said, “This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people.”

Palmeter shot himself with his assault rifle after killing three victims (two men and a woman). He had left behind a manifesto, detailing his hatred for the Black community.

The gunman reportedly lived with his parents in the Clay County of Florida. He asked his father to check his computer, following which the man found ‘manifestos’ and called the police. By the time the authorities were alerted, Ryan Palmeter had already begun killing people at the Dollar General store.

He was earlier spotted on the campus of a historically black school named Edward Waters University. The attacker was refused entry after he failed to identify himself.

Jacksonville Sheriff K Waters informed, “He took that opportunity to put his bulletproof vest on outside and to put his mask on outside and then proceed to the store where he committed this horrible act.”

According to the investigators, Ryan Palmeter was a lone-wolf attacker, who was in possession of a tactical vest, mask, handgun and an AR-15-style rifle. FBI’s special agent Sherri Onks assured that the incident would be pursued as a hate crime incident.

It has now come to light that the Jacksonville attacker was previously evaluated for a mental health crisis in 2017. He was involuntarily detained under the Baker Act of Florida, which allows law enforcement authorities to subject an individual to mental health examination for up to 72 hours.

An individual detained under the Baker Act is ineligible to purchase firearms. It remains unknown as to how Ryan Palmeter was able to procure a handgun and an assault rifle. He coincided the attack with another mass shooting at a Jacksonville gaming event, which took place exactly 5 years ago and killed 2 people.

While condemning the incident, Florida Governor De Santis said, “This shooting based on the manifesto that they discovered from the scumbag that did this was racially motivated…He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable.”

“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions, and so he took the coward’s way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms,” he further added.

According to the data posted by the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 471 mass shootings since January 2023 in the United States.

Join OpIndia's official WhatsApp channel

  Support Us  

Whether NDTV or 'The Wire', they never have to worry about funds. In name of saving democracy, they get money from various sources. We need your support to fight them. Please contribute whatever you can afford

OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

Related Articles

Trending now

Recently Popular

- Advertisement -