Kamala Harris said Americans should admit to the country’s “hate epidemic” after the latest allegedly racially motivated mass shooting left three black people dead in Jacksonville, Florida.
America’s first black vice president called Friday’s shooting a “hate crime” and “act of domestic violent extremism” in a statement released Monday.
The 21-year-old white gunman used a hand-drawn swastika rifle and pistol to shoot three black people at a Dollar General before turning his firearms on himself. The Sheriff’s Office says the shooter, Ryan Christopher Palmete, sent a manifesto to police, the media and his parents describing his racial hatred before the attack.
Sheriff TK Waters said the shooting was “racially motivated” and that Palmete “hated black people” and “wanted to kill n*****s.”
“Federal Police have already opened a civil rights investigation into this attack and are treating it as a possible hate crime and an act of domestic violent extremism,” Vice President Harris wrote in her statement about the shooting.
Vice President Kamala Harris called the latest mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, Friday part of the “epidemic of hate” in the US after law enforcement revealed the violence was racially motivated
An AR-style rifle used by the shooter in Friday’s shooting at the Dollar General had hand-drawn swastikas
“While we allow that investigation to continue, let’s continue to speak the truth about the moment we are in: America is experiencing an epidemic of hate,” she added. “Too many communities have been torn apart by hatred and violent extremism.”
The shooting that killed two black men and one black woman occurred the day before Americans celebrated the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. It was also just steps away from the historically black Edward Waters University.
The shooter was seen donning tactical gear on the EWU campus just before the shooting. Security from the historically black university tried to detain him, but he managed to evade them.
The mass shooting in Jacksonville comes amid an increase in gun violence across the country and a call from Democrats for tougher gun reforms that many Republicans complain would curtail US Second Amendment rights.
“Everyone in every community in America should have the freedom to live safely from gun violence,” Harris wrote. “And Congress should help secure that freedom by banning assault weapons and passing other common sense gun safety legislation.”
“Doug and I will remember the victims and their loved ones in our prayers,” she concluded by including her husband and America’s first Second Lord, Doug Emnhoff.
The Dollar General, where the gunman shot and killed three black people before turning the gun on himself, is just steps away from the historically black Edward Waters University in Northwest Jacksonville, Florida
Suspected gunman Ryan Palmete sent a manifesto to police, the media and his parents describing his racial hatred before the attack. Sheriff TK Waters said he ‘hated black people’ and wanted to ‘kill n*****s’
Sheriff Waters said “there is absolutely no evidence that the shooter is part of a larger group,” despite using an AR-style rifle covered in silver edged Nazi swastikas.
The suspect, who lived in Clay County with his parents and was described as mentally ill, shot himself before being caught.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who canceled presidential campaign events to stay in his home state during the fallout from the shooting, described the shooter as an “asshole” and called him a “coward” for committing suicide.
The suspect left his home at 11:39 a.m. to go to Jacksonville. He texted his father as he left to tell him to check his computer.
At 1:53 p.m., Palmete’s parents called the sheriff’s office to report the manifest they found. By the time they received the call, the suspect had already launched his attack on the Dollar General store in Northwest Jacksonville, Florida.
The suspect was referring to a mass shooting that took place in 2018, five years ago, on the same date David Katz, 24, shot and killed two people and wounded 10 others before turning the gun on himself during a video game tournament – also in Jacksonville.