Quan Laguerre, left, and Anolt Laguerre Sr. shared how Dollar General shooting victim Anolt "A.J." Laguerre Jr. was an optimistic and quiet young man who enjoyed video games. Laguerre, 19, was one of three people killed in the Dollar General massacre in Jacksonville's Grand Park neighborhood on Aug. 26, 2023. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on December 5, 2023 at 8:25 pm
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A Clay County man’s commitment to kill Black people in Jacksonville’s Grand Park neighborhood in August could have been prevented with better security, according a lawsuit filed this week.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsel Mike Haggard filed suit against Dollar General; the company that owns the Dollar General property; the company responsible for digital security; the estate of killer Ryan Palmeter; and Palmeter’s parents.
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Dollar General failed to provide adequate security to protect the public and customers, the suit alleges. And Palmeter’s parents should have known he was a danger, it claims.
The rampage killed Angela Carr, Jerrald Gallion and Anolt “AJ” Laguerre.
Jacksonville Today requested comment from Palmeter’s parents about the suit on Tuesday afternoon. That call was not returned.
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Dollar General also did not return a request for comment.
Carr was a grandmother who was texting her grandchildren in the parking lot when she was shot. Gallion was shopping with his girlfriend. Laguerre was a 19-year-old clerk at Dollar General.
“She’s just minding her business, waiting, doing her job and waiting for someone to come out of a store. A man who doesn’t like someone else for their race takes (her life),” Carr’s daughter Armisha Payne said during a news conference Tuesday. “It’s not fair. It’s hard to explain that when you have 6- and 5- and 4-year-olds and baby, babies, its hard to explain how Nana’s gone.”
CEO Jeff Owen said in September that the company was committed to “providing support, counseling and resources to our teams and their loved ones.” He also mentioned the company’s plan to spend more dollars on labor investment this year from $100 million to $150 million.
Owen made the comments as the company announced its second-quarter earnings. He was fired in October, and former CEO Todd Vasos was selected to replace him.
Dollar General has not commented on when the store will reopen, nor its support for the Jacksonville families since Vasos reclaimed the CEO title.
“Had my brother known he was going to go into work and be killed, I’m pretty sure no one would go into that place,” Quan Laguerre said.
“You wake up, going into work thinking everything is good. The day I received the call, I was on my way up to Jacksonville. It was my grandmother’s birthday, not even five days prior. And I was coming up to surprise them.”
Quan Laguerre is six years older than A.J. Laguerre. He said his brother was a gamer who didn’t complain and consistently strove to be better than the day prior.
The surviving Laguerre wants gun laws changed so people do not easily have access to weapons with the capacity to kill people quickly. He commented that chattel slavery was once legal in both Florida and the United States; but, that did not make it right now or then, he said.
His idea of accountability is that Dollar General provides enough security so another family does not have to experience the agony he has endured since Aug. 26.
Laguerre stood between his father, Anolt Sr., and grandmother, Cheryl Joachin, at the news conference. While he stood behind Crump and co-counsel Michael Haggard, Joachin held Laguerre’s hand, consoling him as he prepared to discuss his brother to strangers.
Quan Laguerre represents his brother’s estate. Payne, Carr’s younger daughter, represents her estate. Gallion’s mother, Carrol Gibbs, represents Gallion’s estate.
The Tributary, a nonprofit news organization in Jacksonville, reported in September that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened a fatality-and-catastrophe probe of Dollar General on Aug. 26. The lawsuit alleges that OSHA notified Dollar General, law enforcement and store managers “that the safety and security measures in place were inadequate.”
The lawsuit’s allegations against Palmeter’s parents, Steve and Maryann, state that the couple “knew that (their) son was a dangerous person. With an obsession regarding firearms and violence, and living in a room filled with prescription medications and alcohol, as well as firearms. (The Palmeters) knew that (their) son was a ticking time bomb.”
Initially, after the shooting, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters detailed the racial animus that Palmeter had for Black people. Waters noted that the killer wrote manifestos to law enforcement and media outlets. Waters said the shooter specifically wanted to kill Black people.
Jacksonville Today has repeatedly requested the gunman’s writings from the Sheriff’s Office — through verbal requests, its media portal, emails and phone calls — but the agency has not provided the records.
Tuesday, Crump stated that Palmeter’s rampage resembled similar racist massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Charleston, South Carolina, where an admitted white supremacist targeted a Black enclave and opened fire.
The difference between the Dollar General shootings and the killings at the Buffalo grocery store and Charleston church was that the Jacksonville shooter died by suicide.
The FBI continues to investigate the Dollar General shooting.
“We continue to go down every rabbit hole to look at every path that we can to gather as much information, because, ultimately, what we hope is to gather that information and use it so it doesn’t happen again,” Sherri Onks, special agent in charge at the FBI Jacksonville, said last week, during a news conference about increasing hate crimes in Florida and nationwide.
That’s what Laguerre and Gibbs want — for no one else to experience the sorrow of receiving a phone call and being told their loved one is dead because they are more melanated than most.
“I was raised to love everyone,” Gibbs said. “I didn’t come up in a household where you don’t talk to this person because of the color of their skin. You don’t hate this person because of the color of their skin. We just got along.
“Kids get along. Little kids get along. At their impressionable age is when they start growing from what they are being taught. … Learning starts at home. Hate, love, all of that starts at home.”
Tuesday was another bittersweet moment for the families that were tied together by an admitted white supremacist’s bullet.
Gallion likely would have had a lot to say about the Jaguars playing on Monday Night Football for the first time in 12 years. He was a diehard fan whose casket had teal and gold trim in honor of his favorite team.
Instead, his family was inside a ballroom of a desolate hotel sharing that he called his mother most mornings as well as the breadth and depth of his love for his young daughter.
WJCT News reporter Steven Ponson contributed to this report.
Lead image: Quan Laguerre, left, and Anolt Laguerre Sr. shared how Dollar General shooting victim Anolt “AJ” Laguerre Jr. was an optimistic and quiet young man who enjoyed video games. Laguerre, 19, was one of three people killed in the Dollar General massacre in Jacksonville’s Grand Park neighborhood on Aug. 26, 2023. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
