The individual responsible for a “racially motivated” attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, has been identified as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced that Palmeter killed two men and a woman in a primarily African American community on Saturday afternoon before taking his own life at the location.
According to Waters, Palmeter “lived with his parents in Orange Park in Clay County, Florida,” and had no known “criminal or arrest history.”
During the attack, Palmeter was reportedly equipped with a tactical vest, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and a Glock handgun.
Sheriff Waters made it clear that blaming guns for the hideous crime was simplistic and wrongheaded.
“We have to stop people that have bad intentions,” Sheriff Waters said. “The story is always about guns. People are bad. This guy’s a bad guy.”
“If I could take my gun off right now and I lay it on this counter, nothing will happen,” he continued. “It’ll sit there. But as soon as a wicked person grabs a hold of that handgun and start shooting people with it, there’s the problem. The problem is the individual.”
“Now, guns are a tool that people use to do