Gov. Ron DeSantis jeered as Jacksonville community calls for action in wake of hate crime

Community members, city leaders and the Florida governor gathered Sunday to pray for the three people killed in a mass shooting the day before – but just behind them, a group of children separately gathered to play.

“As we hear just 15 to 20 steps behind us, the laughter of children, that sound is mixed today with the cries of a community,” Rev. Jeffrey Rumlin said, greeting over 200 people gathered for the vigil.

As the community grappled with loss, Rumlin and other religious leaders pushed for the state to “call a spade a spade” and condemn the attack as a racist hate crime and support the families impacted by the violence.

“In the midst of the laughter of the children, tears, the bereaved family, let all of us hear the anger that is at the hearts of so many,” Rumlin said. “But we can control our anger and use it for fuel for righteousness. Because at the end of the day, respectfully governor, [the shooter] was not a ‘scumbag.’ He was a racist.”

In attendance, Gov. Ron DeSantis — who referred to the shooter as a “scumbag” — promised aid to the victims’ families and to Edward Waters University, the state’s oldest historically Black college, where the gunman first stopped to change before going to Dollar General.

He announced Monday morning the state would provide the university with $1 million for security, as well as $100,000 for the families of people killed – the amount local City Council member Ju'Coby Pittman requested the community raise during Sunday’s vigil.

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“You are not going to target HBCUs and get away with it,” DeSantis said Sunday. “We’re going to hold you accountable. We’re not going to let it happen.”

Still, DeSantis faced criticism from attendees Sunday, as they booed him immediately upon taking the microphone.

Groups throughout the state have protested against policies the governor and the heavily Republican state legislature have passed throughout the past year for changes to education requirements, gun laws and voting district lines that largely affect Black residents. The NAACP went so far as to issue a travel advisory for Florida in May, telling people to "understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color."

Pittman, who organized the vigil, stepped in to tell the crowd to let him speak.

“If the governor wanted to come here, and he's bringing gifts, you all know I’m taking the gifts,” Pittman said. “Because we’ve been through enough already, and I don’t want to go through no more.”

After a white gunman fatally shot three Black people at a Dollar General on Kings Street Saturday, JSO identified the suspect as 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, who wrote three manifestos detailing his hatred for Black people: one to the media, to his parents and to federal agents.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters outlined a full timeline of the shooting on Sunday afternoon and identified the three people killed as Angela Michelle Carr, 52, Anolt Joseph "A.J." Laguerre Jr., 19, and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29.

Community connected the shooting to most recent legislative session

The gunman purchased the weapons he used legally, Waters said, but some activists drew a connection to a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed earlier this year that allows the concealed carry of guns without a permit.

“Our Jax community and nation are shaken to the core,” Katie Hathaway of Moms Demand Action said. “Another horrific tragedy the United States has come to normalize for the sake of someone’s ‘rights.’ An extremist with hate in his heart and easy access to guns targeted our Jax Black community, armed with a military-style weapon with swastikas on it.”

The shooting did not happen in a vacuum, Hathaway said, and she hoped people would learn to push aside political rhetoric coming from state lawmakers like DeSantis, who has said the state is “where woke goes to die,” and supported language in Florida education that Hathaway said whitewashed history.

“This language matters,” Hathaway said. “And it's no wonder that this tragedy happened here in our state of Florida.”

State Rep. Angie Nixon attended the vigil and was the first to alert Pittman of the Saturday shooting. She did not speak during the event but told the Times-Union she hoped the community would demand action from their politicians and “hold DeSantis’ feet to the fire” to stop rhetoric that “only added fuel to the fire.”

“Hold me and my fellow elected officials accountable because at the end of the day, we're supposed to be here for them,” Nixon said. “They elected us. We work for the community. It's not the other way around.”

Moving forward

Council member Pittman did not know DeSantis would be in attendance, she told the Times-Union after the event, but that she hoped he kept his promise of delivering funds and security to Edward Waters University.

“I’m sure he’s not going to come here to not make good on a promise,” Pittman said.

Pittman additionally encouraged community members to donate to help the families affected by the violence with a goal of collecting $100,000, by going to jfrd.com. She has not yet confirmed if the site will still be taking donations after DeSantis met the goal with a donation from Volunteer Florida Monday morning.

The weekend held historical significance – Saturday was also the anniversary the 2018 Jacksonville mass shooting, Sunday the anniversary of “Axe Handle Saturday” and Monday the celebration of the March on Washington – but the feeling of the local vigil came from even more recent history, the Rev. Rumlin said.

“A whole lot of people are not aware of that, but what a whole lot of people are aware of [are] Sandy Hook, Buffalo, Uvalde,” Rumlin said. “That's recent history, and so I think that heaviness [of the vigil] comes not by looking at the civil rights era, but looking at our present-day era.”

The service Rumlin led Sunday was heavy but still hopeful, he said, and he hoped people continued to come together and have conversations necessary to acknowledge the problem of ongoing racism and violence.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gov .Ron DeSantis offers aid at vigil after Dollar General shooting