DeSantis Snaps At Black Man Who Suggested His Policies Were Partly Behind Jacksonville Shooting
Gov.Ron DeSantis got into a heated discussion with a Black man in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday (Sept. 7) who said that his policies are the reason why a white supremacist killed three Black people outside a Dollar General store last month in a mass shooting, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The confrontation took place following an event that DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo held where they continued to attack the wearing of masks, vaccine boosters and other COVID measures as cases are spreading throughout the nation.
“You have allowed people to hunt people like me,” the man said to DeSantis.
The man claimed that the governor’s legislative agenda 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.”
“I’m not going to let you accuse me of committing criminal activity! I am not going to take that,” DeSantis responded with anger in his voice.
“You don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman,” DeSantis went on as his supporters applauded and cheered. “That is not appropriate, and I’m not going to accept it. That is nonsense.”
DeSantis explained how Palmeter was temporarily held for a mental health examination in 2017 under the Baker Act in Florida.
“That guy was Baker Acted,” DeSantis said. “He should have been ruled ineligible [to own firearms], but they didn’t involuntarily commit him.”
Eventually, the man was removed from the restaurant where the event was taking place.
Black legislators in Florida said they tried to warn DeSantis that his policies and divisive rhetoric allowed racist ideologies to grow and manifest in the state.
“We’ve given warnings — don’t pass this legislation because it will only inflame tensions, don’t pass this bad bill because it will promote vigilantism, don’t do this because it will divide our communities. He has courted support from the far right. He plays footsies with it. This rhetoric was always going to lead to violence,” Florida State House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell told the Associated Press.
On Friday (September 8), Rev. Al Sharpton will eulogize Angela Michelle Carr, 52, one of the three victims who was killed in the tragic shooting.
Additionally, the other victims, Anolt Joseph "AJ" Lagurerre Jr., 19, and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29, will be funeralized on Sept. 8 and 9, respectively, also in Jacksonville.
