Funerals Begin for Victims of Racist Attack in Jacksonville
Angela Michelle Carr was remembered as a loving mother of her three adult children at her funeral on Friday, Sept. 8. The remarks came one week after she was killed by a racist gunman in an attack at a Dollar General store.
Carr was one of three victims who were shot and killed by shooter, Ryan Palmeter, 21, who also killed himself.
At her funeral, Carr was eulogized by Rev. Al Sharpton, who questioned how Palmeter was able to legally purchase an assault-style rifle after being involuntarily committed for a mental health examination in 2017, according to the Associated Press.
“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 during Carr's funeral, according to NBC News. “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 the Dollar General store when she was shot multiple times. Palmeter then went inside where he shot and killed A.J. Laguerre, a 19-year-old store employee. Jerrald Gallion, 29, was fatally shot after walking through the front door with his girlfriend, who escaped. Family members of Gallion attended Carr's funeral.
Related: DeSantis Snaps At Black Man Who Suggested His Policies Were Partly Behind Jacksonville Shooting
“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.”
Carr’s son, Chayvaughn Payne, fondly remembered her, calling her “my strong, beautiful queen.”
“She was a hardworking woman,” Payne said. “I watched her do everything as a child. We talked every day no matter what — mad, sad, happy, it didn’t matter.”
Palmeter had racist symbols on the weapon he used to murder the three Black people. Additionally, he left behind a "manifesto" filled with racist ramblings.
Meanwhile, many Black Floridians have pointed to the policies of the state's governor, Ron DeSantis, which they say has “allowed weapons to be put on the street in the hands of immature, hateful people that have caused the deaths of the people that were murdered.”
