One neighbor who did not want to be identified, wants to see the store closed for good. Earlier this month, Dollar General said it plans to open a remodeled store.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Tuesday marked one month since a racially motivated mass shooting killed three Black people in Jacksonville.
52 year-old Angela Carr, 19-year-old A.J. Laguerre Jr., and 29-year-old Jerrald Gallion were all killed at a Dollar General in New Town.
Earlier this month, Dollar General said it planned to open a remodeled store in late September or early October.
“Recognizing the role that its Kings Road store plays in providing daily necessities to the New Town area, Dollar General plans to reopen a fully remodeled store in late September or early October. In addition, Dollar General is donating $50,000 to local area food banks to help address any food insecurity issues,” Dollar General said in a statement.
A neighbor in the area, who did not want to be identified, told First Coast News a remodeled store is the last thing the community needs.
“Now, we’re repaving it after someone died in the parking lot,” the neighbor said.
The woman says she drove past the store Tuesday and noticed a fresh parking lot.
“I really feel like we’re covering up someone’s blood as opposed to leaving the store close[d],” she said. “Don’t reopen it. Who from this community is going to volunteer to say I’ll go in this Dollar General after my own people, Black people have been targeted in this store to be killed.”
An hour before the shooting, the woman says she was in the Dollar General to get milk for her toddler. The store is in a food desert, which Dollar General says is a reason why it’s reopening the store one month after the mass killing.
“Like they didn’t give anybody an opportunity to heal and move on from that they just decided well goes on and that’s what that looks like to me business as usual,” the woman said.
“Recognizing the role that its Kings Road store plays in providing daily necessities to the New Town area, Dollar General plans to reopen a fully remodeled store next month. More details will be shared when available,” a Dollar General representative stated in an email to First Coast News.
To address the need in the community, State Representative Angie Nixon says the New Town Farm is working to host farmers markets in the neighborhood.
“The New Town Farm, we’re getting ready to gear up to have some farmer’s markets in the area to help folks and to start collecting data to figure out who’s using EBT and who’s not so, we can show the need for a grocery store and actually advocate our city council members and our mayor to put the funding behind something like that,” Nixon said.
