Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was booed Sunday at a vigil for victims of Saturday’s racist attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville.
Three people were killed in the shooting.
Footage from multiple angles shows the governor – who is also running for president – being jeered by the crowd:
Jacksonville City Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman urged the crowd to calm down and put political parties aside.
“Today isn’t about parties,” she said. “A bullet knows no party.”
Critics accused DeSantis facilitates the carrying of firearms in the state and for its divisive “anti-woke” policies.
“This divide exists because of the continued disenfranchisement of black people and a governor who is really pushing himself forward through bigoted, racially motivated, misogynist and xenophobic actions to throw red meat at a Republican base,” said Rudolph McKissick, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Jacksonville, the Associated Press said.
Police identified the shooter as 21-year-old Ryan Palmer and said he had a Nazi symbol on his gun.
“He hated black people,” Sheriff TK Waters said at a news conference on Sunday.
Palmer, who killed himself after the attack, also left behind a racist manifesto.
“The manifesto is quite frankly a madman’s diary,” Waters said. “He was just completely irrational. But with irrational thoughts, he knew what he was doing. He was 100% clear.”