Current:Home > MarketsFlorida shooting victim planned to spend Saturday with his daughter. He was killed before he could. -PrimeFinance
Florida shooting victim planned to spend Saturday with his daughter. He was killed before he could.
View
Date:2025-04-12 06:15:37
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jerrald Gallion planned to spend the weekend with his 4-year-old daughter but the devoted father was instead one of three Black people gunned down Saturday afternoon at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida.
Gallion, 29, was shot as he entered the store’s front door with his girlfriend in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The killing marked him as another victim in the latest racist attack in the U.S.
“My brother shouldn’t have lost his life,” his sister, Latiffany Gallion, said Sunday. “A simple day of going to the store, and he’s taken away from us forever.”
The gunman, 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, opened fire Saturday using guns he bought legally despite a past involuntary commitment for a mental health exam. Authorities say he left behind white supremacist ramblings that read like “the diary of a madman.”
The other two people slain were identified as Angela Michelle Carr, 52, who was shot in her car, and store employee Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre, Jr., 19, who was shot as he tried to flee.
On Sunday, family members recalled Gallion’s sense of humor and work ethic. He saw his job as a restaurant manager as a way to provide for his daughter, Je Asia.
Although his relationship with the child’s mother didn’t last, they worked together to raise Je Asia. That earned him lasting affection from Sabrina Rozier, the child’s maternal grandmother.
“He never missed a beat,” Rozier told reporters Sunday evening after a prayer vigil near the shooting scene. “He got her every weekend. As a matter of fact, he was supposed to have her (Saturday).”
Gallion attended St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Bishop John Guns told a crowd during the prayer vigil.
“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.”
As the child sat nearby in a pink dress with long braids in her hair, Rozier said the girl last spoke to her father at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday when she was having trouble falling asleep.
“We’re trying to decide how to tell his one and only daughter that he’s not coming back,” Rozier said. “I’m her grandmother and I don’t know how to tell her. I don’t have the words.”
veryGood! (57)
Related
- Jorge Ramos reveals his final day with 'Noticiero Univision': 'It's been quite a ride'
- Why Elizabeth Hurley Felt Safe Filming Sex Scenes Directed By Her Son
- An Alabama sculpture park evokes the painful history of slavery
- Appeals panel asks West Virginia court whether opioids distribution can cause a public nuisance
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- High-profile elections in Ohio could give Republicans a chance to expand clout in Washington
- Lawsuit accuses NYC Mayor Eric Adams of sexually assaulting a woman in a vacant lot in 1993
- Ed Sheeran takes the stage with Indian singer Diljit Dosanjh in Mumbai for surprise duet
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- What is the average life expectancy? And how to improve your longevity.
Ranking
- Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
- A North Dakota woman is sentenced to life in prison without parole for 2022 killing of ex-boyfriend
- 2 men plead guilty to killing wild burros in Southern California’s Mojave Desert
- Afghan refugee convicted of murder in a case that shocked Albuquerque’s Muslim community
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Man pleads guilty to murder in Hawaii after killing lover and encasing his body in tub
- When does 'Euphoria' Season 3 come out? Sydney Sweeney says filming begins soon
- Effort to revive Mississippi ballot initiative process is squelched in state Senate
Recommendation
Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
Mix & Match Kate Spade Outlet Wallets & Bags for an Extra 20% off: $31 Wristlets, $55 Crossbodies & More
Former Mississippi Archives and History department leader Elbert Hilliard dies at age 87
Petrochemicals Are Killing Us, a New Report Warns in the New England Journal of Medicine
McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
'Paid Leave For All': Over 70 companies, brands closed today to push for paid family leave
North Carolina lands syringe-manufacturing plant that will employ 400
Former Mississippi Archives and History department leader Elbert Hilliard dies at age 87