As he was introduced to speak at a vigil on Sunday for the victims of the Jacksonville massacre at a Dollar General store, where a white murderer shot and killed three Black individuals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was heckled and jeered.
DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, stated that the state was looking for funding to help increase security at Edward Waters University, a historically Black college where the shooter visited before the massacre but departed without incident.
DeSantis declared, “We aren’t going to allow people to target these institutions.”
However, as heckling picked up again, a local councilwoman urged the crowd to ignore party affiliations, allowing DeSantis to continue his speech.
DeSantis said of the shooter, a white male in his 20s who committed suicide after the shootings, “The truth of the matter is, you know, you had a significant league scumbag out of Clay County up here, and whatever he did, whatever he did is completely unacceptable in the state of Florida.”
DeSantis continued, “We are not going to permit racial profiling of anyone. To ensure that evil does not prevail in the state of Florida, we will rise up and take the necessary action. Therefore, we will cooperate with Edward Waters to provide them with the security they require.
Targeting historically Black institutions and universities in Florida is forbidden, the governor said, and anyone caught doing so will face consequences.
A request for comment regarding the audience’s response to DeSantis’ words was not immediately responded to by his office.
On Monday morning, DeSantis said that the state had designated $1 million in financing for Edward Waters University to boost security on campus as he launched a news conference to give an update on Tropical Storm Idalia.
According to Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, the gunman, identified as 21-year-old Ryan Palmeter, had left messages for his parents, the media, and federal law enforcement officials outlining racial animosity. He was carrying a Glock handgun and an AR-15-style rifle. A “maniac” who wanted to kill Black people, he called the shooter.
The victims were named as Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19, Jarrald De’Shaun Gallion, 29, and Angela Michelle Carr, 52.
The Republican governor has come under fire from the left for his anti-“woke” agenda in education, as well as from gun-control advocates for his efforts to relax gun laws in the state, which has experienced a number of recent mass shootings, including those at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.
DeSantis has also come under heavy fire from Florida’s Black community and others when the state implemented new public school guidelines that teach that some Black people profited from slavery because it gave them useful skills. His administration also prevented the introduction of a new AP course on African-American studies in high schools at the beginning of the year, claiming that the course’s content contravened state regulations on how race and gender are treated in the classroom.