The family of a Jacksonville shooting victim doesn't know how to tell his 4-year-old daughter that her dad isn't coming home
AP Photo/John Raoux
- A Jacksonville shooting victim's family is struggling to find the world to tell his daughter he died.
- Jerrald Gallion "never missed a beat" and was supposed to see his four-year-old on Saturday.
- Gallion, along with two others, were shot and killed at a Jacksonville Dollar General in a racially-motivated shooting Saturday, authorities said.
The family of a Jacksonville, Florida, shooting victim is struggling to find a way to tell his four-year-old daughter that her dad is never coming home.
Jerrald Gallion, 29, was one of three shot and killed at a Jacksonville Dollar General over the weekend. The other two victims are Angela Michelle Carr, 52, and Anolt Joseph "AJ" Laguerre Jr., 19.
Sabrina Rozier, a relative of Gallion's, told the Independent that their grieving family isn't sure how to break the news to his young daughter.
"I'm her grandmother and I don't know how to tell her. I don't have the words," Rozier said, according to the Independent.
Gallion was a "devoted father" who was supposed to spend the weekend with his daughter, his family said at a Sunday evening vigil, according to USA Today.
"He never missed a beat," Rozier told reporters Sunday evening after the vigil, the Independent reported. "He got her every weekend. As a matter of fact, he was supposed to have her [Saturday]."
Gallion's daughter attended the Sunday vigil.
Rozier said she last spoke to her father around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday when she couldn't sleep, the Independent reported.
Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime after a 21-year-old gunman opened fire — using an assault rifle painted with a swastika, authorities said — in the Dollar General in a predominately Black neighborhood.
The gunman reportedly left racist writings and yelled racial slurs at shoppers before the attack. The gunman died after shooting himself following the rampage, authorities said.