Jacksonville begins funerals for Black victims of racist gunman
Funerals got underway Friday for three Black people killed by a racist gunman at a Florida discount store, with friends and relatives sharing memories while ministers and activists called for action against rising hate crimes.
Mourners at the funeral service for Angela Michelle Carr applauded the Rev. Al Sharpton as he criticized laws that allowed the gunman to buy an assault-style rifle years after he was involuntarily committed for a mental health examination. He also denounced white supremacists who demonstrated outside Disney World a week after the Aug. 26 killings in Jacksonville.
“How many people have to die before you get up — whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat — and say we’ve got to stop this and we’ve got to bring some sanity back in this country?” Sharpton said. “Have we gotten so out of bounds that we’ve normalized this stuff happening?”
Carr, 52, worked as an Uber driver and was sitting in her idling car outside a Dollar General store when she was shot multiple times. The gunman then went inside and killed A.J. Laguerre, a 19-year-old store employee, as he tried to flee. Jerrald Gallion, 29, was fatally shot after walking through the front door with his girlfriend, who escaped.
The shooter, Ryan Palmeter, killed himself. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said 21-year-old Palmeter targeted his victims because they were Black and left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like “the diary of a madman.”
On Friday, Gallion’s 4-year-old daughter sat with her maternal grandmother in the pews at Carr’s funeral. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan also attended the service at The Bethel Church, where the pastor thanked Jacksonville’s sheriff for providing extra security.
“We gather together as a hurting community because this was not just an attack on the Carr family and our other two families who lost their loved ones,” said the Rev. David Green Sr., Carr’s pastor at St. Stephens AME Church. “This was an attack on our entire community.”