In the wake of a sinister act, Dollar General victims will be remembered for goodness

For the families of the three people killed Aug. 26 at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville's New Town neighborhood, thoughts pivoted amid the grief and the loss on the tragic what-ifs, the random ugliness and senselessness of what had just happened.

How was it that the daily moment-to-moment routines of their innocent loved ones' lives would cross — for such a brief, deadly few minutes — with the movements of a racist armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, someone bent on killing people simply because they were Black.

"My brother shouldn’t have lost his life," Latiffany Gallion said at a vigil the day after the shooting. "A simple day of going to the store, and he’s taken away from us forever."

Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, who was preparing to pick up his 4-year-old daughter was shot as he entered the Dollar General with his girlfriend while the rampage was going on.

Angela Michelle Carr, the killer's first victim, was shot as she sat inside her Kia sedan in the store’s parking lot.

Her son Chayvaughn Payne told The New York Times that his mother had dropped off a friend at the store moments before she was killed.

"This is really hard to process," he said. "To lose a mother for nothing."

Two days after the shooting, outside his family’s house not far from the store, Quantavious Laguerre spoke of the heartbreak of the senseless killing of his brother Anolt Joseph "AJ" Laguerre Jr., a teenage Dollar General employee.

“I never thought I’d have to bury my baby brother,” he said, according to The Associated Press. "They say don’t question God. But I just want to know why.”

Following are the stories of these lives lost and families forever impacted.

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Angela Carr

Carr, 52, who had three children and 14 grandchildren, regularly took her family to church, where other members became her second family, said her pastor, the Rev. David W. Green Sr. of Saint Stephen A.M.E Church.

"She was just a loving, caring mother," Green said. "She was a person who was a provider. She provided for her family."

Payne said his mother was someone who would invite people to cookouts and other family events. "She would give her shirt off her back for people," he told the New York Times.

Carr worked as an Uber driver, company spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas confirmed to USA TODAY. Carr had completed her last trip more than an hour before the shooting and had logged off the app.

A cousin, Kawana Staffney-Ashe, told Keys Weekly that Carr was originally from Key West but left years ago. “She never bothered anybody,” Staffney-Ashe said. “She didn’t deserve this, just because of the color of her skin.”

Carr's daughter, Ashley Carr, who helped set up a GoFundMe page for her mother, told ABC News how much she meant to her family: "She was the mother, the father, the provider, the counselor, the pastor. She was everything."

Carr said her mother gave birth to her as a teenager. "So, I grew up with her. I've seen the changes. I've experienced them all with her," she said to ABC. "And to get to this point and to be a mother [with] my own kids, I get it. I understand going through how she went through divorce and how she went through family issues and how strong she was."

Carr told ABC her mother's legacy is in those left behind so suddenly. "She's no longer here, but she's still here if that makes sense," she said. "Her spirit will always live because she has us."

Carr’s family hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent them and held a press conference Monday afternoon. He said his firm would search for people who might have known that the shooter harbored racist ideologies and owned guns.

“We want to send a message that if you condone white supremacy, not only will the blood be on your hands, but you will be called to account,” Crump said.

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AJ Laguerre Jr.

Wearing a graduation cap and gown in the proud cardinal red and silver gray of Raines High School, Laguerre is smiling in a photograph shared on the GoFundMe page started by his brother Quantavious.

It was 2022, and the future seemed to stretch out before him.

The 19-year-old was the youngest of five siblings, all raised by their grandmother after their mother died in 2009. They were raised with two of their grandmother's children in one big family. "We all consider each other as siblings," his brother wrote on the Gofundme page.

The family celebrated when AJ, like his older siblings before him, graduated from high school. As he looked into going to college to study cybersecurity, he got a job at the Dollar General store several months ago to help their grandmother pay the bills.

When he wasn't working, he played Fortnite and other videogames on the live-streaming platform Twitch, his brother said, using the gamer tag galaxysoul. His goal was to build a large online following.

“He had dreams and aspirations of being a professional streamer,” Laguerre told AP. “So after he would get off work, he’d just stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning just grinding, you know, trying to get that stance and have followers.”

On the Gofundme appeal, his brother wrote of AJ's character and strength, which shined through even in tough times:

"AJ's life was marked by resilience and positivity, even in the face of adversity. We lost our mother on January 10, 2009, when AJ was just five years old. Despite this immense loss at such a young age, AJ remained positive and strong for all of us, supporting us through the challenging times that followed our mother's passing ...

"AJ never had a record, never received a referral in school, and never got into a fight. He was a kind-hearted and gentle soul who loved playing video games and supporting his family and friends."

His father, Anolt Laguerre Sr., told ABC News how his son's life was cut off too soon, so senselessly. "My son is a bright young man, who hasn't even lived life, just graduated from high school," he said.

"AJ is very kind, intelligent, outgoing and willing to help anyone in any way he can," he said in a text message to ABC. "But his life got taken away by a lifeless individual who doesn't like African Americans."

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Jerrald Gallion

Gallion, 29, was a dedicated father who talked nightly with his young daughter, Je Asia, said Sabrina Rozier, her maternal grandmother.

He sometimes worked two or three jobs to help support his daughter and “never missed a beat” throughout her life, Rozier said at a news conference Monday. He planned to take her to a father-daughter dance in the coming weeks and was in the process of coordinating what colors they would wear, she said.

“A daddy is supposed to be the first person to break a young girl’s heart, but this white, racist supremacist took that from her, robbed her of being walked down the aisle when she gets married, graduations, everything this young girl got going on,” Rozier said.

Rozier said her daughter and Gallion were best friends who co-parented well together even after they separated. She feared what could have happened if his daughter had been with him when he stopped at the store that day.

“Just this weekend, she was supposed to be with her daddy,” Rozier said. “Just imagine if she was. I would have lost her too, probably. It’s senseless and it needs to stop.”

Tyesha Jones, the mother of Gallion's daughter, described him to NBC News as a devoted father and co-parent. Gallion and Jones were no longer romantic partners, but they remained close. "He was my best friend," Jones said at a vigil on Sunday. "He was my daughter's best friend. He got her every weekend. He was the best daddy ever."

During the prayer vigil, Gallion's family recalled his sense of humor and work ethic, saying he viewed his job as a restaurant manager as a way to provide for his daughter. A cousin has set up a GoFundMe page to cover the unexpected costs of a funeral and memorial.

Bishop John Guns told the crowd gathered for the vigil that Gallion attended St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville. "In two weeks I have to preach a funeral of a man who should still be alive," Guns said. "He was not a gangster, he was not a thug — he was a father who gave his life to Jesus and was trying to get it together. I wept in church today like a baby because my heart is tired. We are exhausted."

In an interview with ABC News, Latiffany Gallion said her brother loved sports and was a big fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Florida State Seminoles football team. "His hopes and dreams were to give his daughter the world and make sure she never wanted for anything," she said, adding that she wanted the world to know what a devoted father he was.

"This world has too much hate and not enough love," she said in the interview. "How do I explain to my daughter when she asks why that man [the gunman] did what he did? And how do I tell her she is a target because of the color of her skin?”

Times-Union writer Hanna Holthaus contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Dollar General hate crime: Families honor shooting victims