The 21-year-old man suspected of gunning down three Black people at a Jacksonville discount store before fatally shooting himself on Saturday had grown up an “introverted” kid, a former classmate said. The classmate, Andres Sanchez, told First Coast News on Monday that Ryan Palmeter had been “socially awkward” and “very involved in internet humor.” Palmeter had lived up the street from Sanchez, who said he would “sometimes” go over to the other boy’s house to play video games. Sanchez added that he hadn’t seen Palmeter since 2019. Another neighbor, a man named Greg, told the station that Palmeter’s parents were “the type of people that help anybody, anytime, anywhere.” He speculated that Palmeter had stopped taking his medication several days before the shooting, and “that’s probably when he snapped.” The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are investigating the shooting at the Dollar General as a hate crime. Sheriff T.K. Waters said that Palmeter had left behind a violent 30-page manifesto that was “quite frankly, the diary of a madman.” Its contents have not yet been released to the public.
