A gunman who shot dead three black people in a “racially motivated” attack in Florida has been named.
Ryan Palmeter, 21, killed Angela Michelle Carr, 52, inside her car outside the Dollar General store in Jacksonville before shooting dead employee AJ Laguerre, 19, and customer Gerrald Gallion, 29, inside, Sheriff T K Walters told a news conference on Sunday.
He said the suspect “targeted black people” before killing himself.
“Plainly put, this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people,” he told reporters.
In a statement, President Joe Biden noted the shooting occurred on the same day as the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.
“We must refuse to live in a country where black families going to the store or black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin,” he said.
Image: Residents talk with Jacksonville police officers near the scene. Pic: AP
Sheriff Waters said he used a Glock handgun and an AR-15 style rifle emblazoned with swastikas during his killing spree which occurred shortly before 2pm local time.
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Palmeter reportedly left several manifestos littered with racial epithets detailing his hatred of black people.
Sheriff Waters added that there was no indication he was acting as part of a larger group.
He had driven from neighbouring Clay County and had sent his father a text message telling him to check his computer.
His father found the writings and the family called 911, but the shooting had already begun.
Sheriff Waters said Palmeter had been involved in a domestic violence incident in 2016 that did not lead to an arrest and was involuntarily committed for a 72-hour mental health examination the following year.
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0:25
Jacksonville sheriff says racism was behind the killings in Florida
Earlier, Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT “there were a number of fatalities” inside the store but did not give a precise number.
Numerous police officers were in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically black university.
“This is unacceptable,” Ms Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”
Image: Pic: AP
Jacksonville City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman also told the TV channel: “My heart is heavy. I am tired of all of the shootings.”
Sherri Onks, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FBI office, said federal officials had opened a civil rights investigation and would pursue the incident as a hate crime.
“Hate crimes are always and will always remain a top priority for the FBI because they are not only an attack on a victim, they’re also meant to threaten and intimidate an entire community,” Ms Onks said.
Edward Waters University students were being kept in their dorms, the school said in a statement.
No students or faculty are believed involved, the school said.
The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.
A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake has struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, causing a tsunami.
A tsunami of up to four metres (13 feet) was recorded in Kamchatka Peninsula, leading to evacuations and damaging buildings, officials said.
Tsunami warnings have been issued for Japan, the Philippines, Hawaii and parts of Alaska in the US.
The Honolulu Department of Emergency Management in Hawaii has called for the evacuation of some coastal areas, writing on X: “Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected.”
The first waves in Hawaii are expected to hit at 7pm local time (6am UK time).
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has said waves of one to three meters (three to 10 feet) above tide level were possible along some coastal areas of Hawaii, Chile, Japan and the Solomon Islands.
Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov had earlier said: “Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors.”
Several people in the region sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister told Russia’s Tass state news agency.
“Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Mr Melnikov said.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported from the biggest city nearby, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, that many people ran out into the street, while cabinets toppled inside homes, mirrors were broken, cars swayed on roads and balconies on buildings shook noticeably.
Power outages and mobile phone service failures were also reported in the capital of the Kamchatka region.
The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko.
He said residents were safe and staying on high ground until the threat of a repeat wave was gone.
A regional branch of Russia’s geophysical service has said that “significant, noticeable” aftershocks with magnitudes of up to 7.5 after expected to continue for at least another month.
Japan issued a tsunami warning, saying it expects waves as high as three metres to arrive along large coastal areas along the Pacific Ocean.
Image: Waves off the coast of the Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan after the tsunami warning was issued. Pic: AP
It has ordered the evacuation of some areas.
The National Tsunami Warning Center, based in Alaska, issued a tsunami warning for parts of the Alaska Aleutian Islands.
A tsunami warning also was extended to the US state of Hawaii, with the National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying a tsunami from the quake had been generated that could cause damage along the coastlines of all the Hawaiian islands.
A tsunami “watch” was issued for portions of the West Coast, including California, Oregon, and Washington.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred about 125 km (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay. It revised the magnitude up twice from 8.0 and 8.7 to 8.8 earlier.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s disaster management agency has warned that the country’s coastal areas could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore”.
In a national advisory alert, Civil Defence New Zealand said there was no immediate need to evacuate but said citizens should stay away from beaches and shore areas.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
“Children are eating out of piles of garbage” – that was the answer from UNICEF’s Salim Oweis when I asked if aid was now getting to those who need it.
The phone call was intended for background to try to get a clearer idea of the latest aid distribution in Gaza, but it’s a conversation I won’t forget.
“Parents are crushing whatever they can into water, most likely unclean water, because there is no infant milk or formula. The reports are horrific,” says Salim.
“Our colleagues are struggling to find enough food for themselves.”
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2:39
Sky News on Gaza aid-drop plane
Image: A woman with an air-dropped food parcel in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
It’s been three days since Israel announced humanitarian pauses to allow aid to get to starving people in Gaza but it’s not yet being felt on the ground.
I’m told more aid trucks have entered Kerem Shalom – the border crossing between Gaza and Israel – but that’s only the first stage of the journey.
The aid then needs to be collected and brought inside the Gaza Strip, then taken to partners on the ground for distribution.
It’s a lengthy process, and it needs to be accelerated with urgency.
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0:44
Trump: Gaza children ‘look very hungry’
So far, lorries carrying famine preventative supplies have been collected – that’s high-energy biscuits, food for children between six months and two years, infant formula, vaccines and nappies.
Therapeutic food, which has a peanut butter like consistency, and is aimed to treat malnutrition has arrived at Kerem Shalom but there’s no confirmation yet on whether it’s made it in.
I had not heard of therapeutic food before. I’ve since learnt it is high in energy and micronutrients and won’t treat the complications of malnutrition, but will get a child out of the danger zone.
Image: Vials of the DTP vaccine and infant formula were collected at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday. Pic: UNICEF
There is an ongoing issue of desperate people attempting to loot these lorries as they enter Gaza.
“The more aid that goes in, the more the looting will decrease because people will trust that there is now food coming back in,” says Salim.
But the amount getting in is still a fraction of what is needed.
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1:08
Israeli organisations accuse Israel of genocide
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The situation is so desperate, not everyone can wait until tomorrow for help. People are now dying everyday in Gaza due to hunger.
There is no time for wrangling over detail. Food is needed in mass quantities immediately. We have had warnings for months that Gaza was on the brink of famine. It’s now here.
For those working to help the most vulnerable and innocent in Gaza, it feels extremely personal.
“The rest of the world has failed the children and the civilians of Gaza,” says Salim.
“The world is numb and leaders of the world are apparently deaf.”
We are on our way to Gaza with the Jordanian military.
The aircraft is hot and noisy and as we get closer, the atmosphere gets more tense. Aircrew gesture with their hands to tell us how many minutes there are to go. Fifteen. Six. One.
The Jordanian military C-130 flies out over the sea before banking and heading inland for Gaza. The parachutes, attached to the top of each of the eight pallets, are prepared for the drop.
As land approaches, I look down. The ground is modern and built up – we’re still over southern Israel.
Then a few short minutes later, it’s clear we’ve crossed Gaza’s border.
The ground turns grey, the shapes of buildings disappear, there are no cars, no people.
You can see the outline of communities and villages that are now flattened. Mile after mile of grey rubble.
This mission by the Royal Jordanian Air Force is one of the first aid drop flights since Israel announced they could resume. It is carrying eight tonnes of food and baby formula.
Image: Jordanian military personnel load aid parcels on to a plane in Zarqa, Jordan. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
Foreign nations know this is a deeply flawed way of delivering aid – road convoys are far more effective and can carry far more – but the Jordanian flight crew say the need in Gaza is so urgent, it’s simply an attempt to do something.
When the aircraft ramp opens, the aid is pushed out and it’s gone in seconds.
The parachutes seem peaceful as they open and their fall slows. But dropping food from the sky is a dangerous and undignified way to feed people.
On the ground it’s chaos.
Our colleagues in Gaza say the fighting for food has become lethal – gangs are now punching and stabbing people to reach it first. Most critically, it’s not getting to the weakest. To those who really need it.
One man becomes emotional as he describes racing to find food and leaving with nothing.
“I came only for my son,” he says. “I wouldn’t come here if it was just for me. When you have a child, they need bread.”
He’s an engineer in normal times and seems in disbelief that his life has come to this. “The aid comes from the sky and we have to run after it. I’ve never had to do this in my life.”