Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis entered into a shouting match with a left-wing heckler who blamed him for a racist mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Aug. 26 shooting killed black four people inside a Dollar General store. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said authorities recovered three manifestos written by the now-deceased suspect and determined the shooting to be “racially motivated.”
During a Thursday press conference on COVID mandates in Jacksonville, a heckler shouted at DeSantis, apparently claiming that the governor’s policies were to blame for the shooting. His exact words are unclear in the video.
“First of all, I did not allow anything with that,” DeSantis shot back. “Well listen, excuse me, I’m not gonna let you accuse me of committing criminal activity. I am not going to take that. I’m not gonna take that. So, you want to have a civil conversation, that’s one thing. Trying to say that I’m letting — that guy was Baker Acted. He should have been ruled ineligible, but they didn’t involuntarily commit him, so—”
Florida’s Baker Act provides individuals with “emergency services and temporary detention for up to 72 hours for mental health examination” if there is a “substantial likelihood that without care
or treatment, the person will cause serious bodily harm to himself, herself or others,” according to a fact sheet.
The heckler continued shouting at the governor, prompting DeSantis to hit back again.
“No, no, no, there is the truth,” the governor said. “There is something about the truth. It is not, everyone doesn’t have their own truth. No, you don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman. That is not appropriate and I’m not going to accept it.”
As the heckler continued, the governor told him his remarks were “nonsense” and pointed to his administration’s support for law enforcement and Florida’s low crime rate.
“We have done more for law enforcement in this state than anybody in the United States. Our crime rate in Florida is at a 50-year low,” he said. “We have enacted policies so that people have a chance to live in safety. We have attracted people to come to this state in large part because we’ve had a commitment to public safety. So the notion that somehow we’re not supportive of safety is absurd and we put our money where our mouth is, we put support behind policies to hold people accountable who hurt other people.”
“You haven’t seen us releasing people from prison … When you do the crime, you do the time,” the governor continued.
DeSantis previously said the shooter “took the coward’s way out” by committing suicide before police could arrest him. The governor offered condolences to the victims’ families and said his administration “offered support” to the sheriff’s department.
“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions,” DeSantis said. “And so, he took the coward’s way out, but we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms, we’ve offered support for Sheriff Waters and the city of Jacksonville, and we send our condolences to the victims and their families who were the victims of a very cowardly act.”