Who Is Ryan Palmeter? Everything We Know About Jacksonville Shooter

On Saturday, law enforcement officials reported that the suspect now known to be Palmeter carried out the shooting at a Dollar General store in the New Town neighborhood of Jacksonville. Armed with an AR-15 and a handgun, he initially opened fire on a woman sitting in her car before continuing the attack in the store. After killing three people, all Black, he shot and killed himself at the scene.

His victims were later identified as 52-year-old Angela Michelle Carr, who had been the woman in the car, and 19-year-old Anolt Joseph "AJ" Laguerre Jr. and 29-year-old Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29, both of whom had been in the store.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Sheriff T.K. Waters said that Palmeter had been living with his parents in the suburbs of Jacksonville prior to the shooting and had acquired the weapons he used legally. He also added that the shooter had no prior criminal record, and no record of any kind outside of a domestic call involving his brother.
 

"There was no criminal record, nothing," Waters said. "There were no red flags."

Newsweek reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office via email for further comment.

Waters also noted that Palmeter had, in 2017, been held in state custody under the Baker Act, which allows for residents to be "taken to a receiving facility for involuntary examination" during mental health crises. The sheriff did not elaborate on what the incident involved.

In addition to a number of racist "manifestos," law enforcement also found among Palmeter's possessions a suicide note to his family and a will, indicating his intention to end his own life after the shooting.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting on Saturday, law enforcement officials noted that the incident was "racially motivated" and, on Sunday, it was revealed that Palmeter, wearing a tactical vest and face mask, had attempted to enter the campus of the historically-Black Edward Waters University before moving on to the Dollar General.

"Portions of these manifestos detail the shooter's disgusting ideology of hate," Waters said on Saturday. "Plainly put the shooting was racially motivated, and he hated black people. He wanted to kill n******. That's the one and only time I'll use that word. I want to be very clear that there's absolutely no evidence that the shooter is part of any large group. We know that he acted completely alone."

Update 8/27/23, 4:36 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.