JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Today marks three years since a racially motivated shooting took three lives at a Dollar General in New Town.<\/p>\n
The families of 52-year-old Angela Carr, 29-year-old Jerrald Gallion and 19-year-old A.J. Laguerre Jr., the three victims shot and killed that day, gathered at Kings Road Memorial Park on Wednesday to honor the lives taken by one man\u2019s hatred.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to turn memory into action because we light the way forward when we create a Jacksonville where people can live,\u201d said Michele Godfrey-Watson, the lead pastor at Refresh Ministries. \u201cThey can raise their families and pursue their dreams without fear because of the color of their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators say that Ryan Palmeter from Clay County stormed into a Dollar General off Kings Road with the clear intention of killing black people three years ago today.<\/p>\n
After taking the lives of Carr, Gallion and Laguerre, officials say Palmeter shot himself in a backroom.<\/p>\n
Left in the victims\u2019 places are three heart-shaped memorials, covered in flowers, American flags and crosses.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re coming together to honor their life and their legacy instead of the tragedy that actually happened,\u201d said Michelle Norris, a cousin of Gallion\u2019s.<\/p>\n Norris says Gallion was always laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cHis smile, his joking, the way he dressed, how he loved them Jaguars,\u201d Norris said. \u201cHe was just an all-around good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Three years later, she says she still takes things day by day.<\/p>\n \u201cGrief don\u2019t end. You just learn how to cope with it as best as you can,\u201d Norris said. \u201cDeath comes, grief is hard, but continue to look forward. Honor them as best as you can, never forget, [and] never let their name go silent. As we say his name, \u2018Jerrald Gallion,\u2019 always.\u201d<\/p>\n City Councilwoman Ju\u2019Coby Pittman says sharing in the heartbreak are the survivors who told her they were too emotional to make the ceremony.<\/p>\n \u201cI had five of the survivors call me before the event, who were coming, and said, \u2018I can\u2019t do it,\u2019\u201d Pittman said. \u201cThis is a very emotional time, and for someone to come [into] our community from another county and target a community that just did not deserve what happened\u2026 We all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n She says those emotions are exactly why we can never let Jacksonville forget.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a racist act, and he was a coward to kill himself and not stand for taking someone\u2019s lives,\u201d Pittman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done what we can. Is it enough? Probably not, and we will hope that there will never be another shooting like that.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Today marks three years since a racially motivated shooting took three lives at a Dollar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-382209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}