[108] Dollar General, Jacksonville, Florida

We have an active shooter, we have an acre Shooting's go ahead of a player that's a mass casualty Welcome to Active Shooter, a podcast that covers the whys, the hows, and the aftermath of active shooter and mass casualty events. I have an active shooter in a building a teching call as a our big attack of the show. We got chuck fire at four fifteen ASL broaching ninety one, So I'm like, oh, I'm at a fire on Active shooter. Coorts of an active shooter, active shooter, active shooter of mass

casualty incidents. Thank you for listening. You are listening to Active Shooter, a podcast that may contain adult themes, explicit language, and graphic depictions of violence. Portions of this show may be traumatic for those under eighteen. Listener discretion is advised. We begin with breaking news tonight, law enforcement sources confirming three victims and the shooter have all been killed in a shooting at the Dollar

General on Kings Road near Edward Waters University. Good evening to you, everybody, Thank you for joining us. Mass shootings are utterly devastating acts of violence that we can never make sense of, and even more so when the attack is against a child, is anti Semitic, anti LGBTQ plus, or is rooted in pure racism. How do you comprehend that three innocent people were murdered

because of a complete stranger's ignorant beliefs. How does one explain to a child that their parent died because someone else hated the very existence of them, simply because of the color of their skin. The shooting at Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida was a cold blooded murder that was carried out by a monster with

a gun and bigoted malice in his heart. It's a heartbreaking reminder that racism is still very prevalent, and it is our duty to educate ourselves about racial biases, have the courage to speak up when we see racism and embrace other cultures and ways of life. We must teach love over hate. Today's case is dedicated to the lives and memories of the three shooting victims, Angela Michelle Carr, Gerald Gallian and a Nault. Joseph A J. Leguire junior active

shooter. The podcast is a High five Holly production, and I'm your host JT. If you've listened to our prior episodes. You know that the Active Shooter podcast team has taken the no notoriety pledge and we will not be sharing the real name to the shooters that we cover. We will be giving the shooters a pseudonym and refer to them by that name throughout the episode. This will help in clearing up any confusion in the story. While remaining true to

our pledge and not naming the shooter by their actual name. We will refer to today's shooter as Yuri. Saturday, August twenty sixth, twenty twenty three was a hot Jacksonville day. There were scattered clouds throughout the sky, and the lack of a breeze made the heat feel sticky and heavy inside a neighborhood Jacksonville Dollar General. Employees managed to stay cool enough as they worked around the

clutter of boxes and merchandise all over the store. The store was relatively busy, customers mustling in and out of the store with their merchandise carefully tucked inside their bright yellow shopping bags elsewhere. Twenty one year old Yury was leaving his home in Oak Leaf Plantation, which is close to Jacksonville, at eleven thirty nine a m Yuri backed his gray Honda Element out of the drive and took off his destination the busiest dollar store he could find. His purpose murder as

many innocents as possible before taking his own life. Yuri carried a glock twenty ten millimeters pistol and a Palmeadow State Armory AR fifteen rifle. He made a momentary stop at a family dollar where he purchased a few items. It's believed that this store was the initial target. However, Yuri allegedly grew impatient while waiting, so he left. It isn't evident what or who he was waiting for four but it has been speculated that there weren't enough customers in the store

to satisfy Yuri's bloodlust. After he left the dollar store, Yuri drove to Edward Waters University, which is a smaller sized, historically black college. He arrived at twelve forty eight pm and cruised into the parking lot located behind the library and pulled into an empty space. Next to his parking spot was a vehicle that was occupied by two black men. Yuri sat there for a moment, but took no action except to record a TikTok video of himself putting on

a tactical vest. Police would later indicate that they didn't believe the college was a or the only target Yury had in mind. Why he stopped there isn't clear, but shortly after he arrived, a campus security officer came upon Yory's car and walked up to speak with him. The officer asked Yuri for identification, which he was unable to produce, so the officer informed Yuri he would

need to vacate the campus property. At twelve fifty seven pm, Yury drove through the parking lot with the security officer following close behind so as to ensure he actually left. Suspicions peaked, the campus security officer waved down at Jacksonville Shriff's deputy and reported the encounter that left him feeling unsettled. The deputy issued a bolow or be on the lookout for the gray Honda at one o eight pm. Mere moments after the bolow, a shot Spotter nine one one alert

blasted eleven times. After eleven shots were fired just outside of the Dollar General store located at twenty one sixty one King's Road in the predominantly black neighborhood. Of Jacksonville called Newtown. The shot Spotter is a service that offers a gunfire locator service and claims to be able to discern whether or not gunfire was detected

in a specified area, allowing law enforcement to be dispatched Accordingly. The company, which is based in Fremont, California, has changed the services name to Sound Thinking Incorporated. Perhaps it was coincidental, but the name change came after recent dissent with the system due to serious concerns of its reliability, equity, privacy, and effectiveness. Ury fired all eleven shots directly into the windshield of

Uber driver Angela Michelle Carr's vehicle. Angela was dropping off a passenger when her windshield suddenly exploded as eleven bullets blasted through it. The fifty two year old mother of three and grandmother to sixteen. Angela was described as a thoughtful and attentive woman who worked incredibly hard to provide the best possible life for her family. By her personal struggles with a rocky divorce and other family drama, Angela's

daughter said her mom was the strongest person she knew. Angela leaves behind a legacy of perseverance and compassion after shooting. Angela Yori entered the Dollar General, and without a moment's hesitation, he raised the gun and fired. The shot spotter went off again, alerting one time at one o nine PM, as Uri shot and killed employee Annault Aj Leaguire as he was trying to run from the sounds of gunfire. Nineteen year old Aj was born on October twenty five,

two thousand and four, and was the youngest of seven children. When he was only five, his mother passed away, and AJ and his siblings were raised by their grandmother. The responsible young man aspired to be a professional video game streamer, and understandably, his favorite thing to do was play video games. His thoughtfulness nature will be deeply missed. The first nine one one

call was placed at one nine pm, and several others followed. Inside the store, security footage depicted an individual wearing a tactical vest with a blue button up shirt over it. His face was covered and he wore a hat, ear protection, khaki pants, and rounded out the look with black boots. At a very quick glance, he might appear to be any regular shopper. Petrified employees and even a few customers were able to escape through the rear exit.

Yuri walked rapidly towards the back of the store, briefly exiting out of the same door people just ran out of. He turned and re entered the store and looked up to a security camera. He raised the firearm and attempted to shoot the camera, but he missed. At one ten pm, Gerald Gallian and his girlfriend, completely unaware of what was taking place inside, entered

the store to do some light shopping. They may have been able to peruse a few aisles searching for their desired items when at one thirteen pm, Yori came upon the couple. He raised the gun and shot Gerald. His girlfriend ran. She didn't think, she just ran for her life. Ury chased her through the store, shooting at her at least once, but he missed. Gerald's girlfriend was able to get out of the store through the back exit, and Yuri followed out the same way. He shot at her again,

but thankfully he missed again. She got away and Yuri walked back into the store once more. Twenty nine year old Gerald Gallian was a giving person who practiced and preached love over hate. He was the first to jump in to help someone else, and he loved his family above all else. Gerald leaves behind two sisters, a mother and a four year old daughter who will miss

out on knowing the truly honorable her father was. He was planning to spend the weekend with his little girl before he was ruthlessly murdered in a single act of pure hate. At one fourteen, Yuri walked into the back office and took out his phone. He drafted a text to his father, which was sent at one eighteen p m. The message instructed his dad to enter Ury's

room, but he had to pry the door open with a screwdriver. His dad got the message, read it and went to his son's room, where he located two documents, a suicide note and a last will and testament. It's not clear when the message was read, but at one fifty three PM, Yury's dad called nine one one to report his son as an active shooter. He told the dispatcher that Yuri was taking lexapro and had been seeking help

from a psychiatrist. However, there was a full bottle of medication that was just filled on July twenty third, so it appeared that Uray stopped taking the medication altogether, which in and of itself is a bad idea. Any type of antidepressant or psychiatric drug should be weaned down, not abruptly stopped the nine to one to one. Audio from this call will be played now. Okay, do you know where he is right now? No, I'm sorry,

I'm a little upset. No, you're fine, sir. If he said anything like this before when he was fifteen, he left the note a suicide note, and got on his bike and was headed downtown to jump off a building. And does your son go anywhere that you know of it is? They're like call and say no, No, he doesn't go anywhere. Oh,

he doesn't go anywhere. Yeah, he plunked out a flagular college, moved home about a couple of years ago, had a job for a while at home depot and lost that job, and pretty much living in his room ten milligram tablets. But it doesn't look like he's been taken on. This was filled July twenty third in the bottles full. At one nineteen pm, police officers entered the Dollar General and heard one single gunshot. They didn't know it at the time, but that final shot was Yuri taking his own life.

By three point forty four pm, a swat team confirmed that Yuri was dead. There were at least three manifestos located on Yuri's person. One was addressed to his parents, one to the news media, and the third was to federal agents. Each document was a bone chilling account of how strongly he desired to murder black people. It was disgusting, disturbing, and carried out

with precision. Each of the shooting victims was black and was the intended target of a racist individual whose horrific words do not bear repeating or releasing into the world. After searching his home, a manifesto found in Yuri's room was thirty pages long and what the Clay County Sheriff described as quote the diary of a madman. Several electronic devices were seized and examined, and there was a substantial

amount of data recovered, including several writings Yuri made. They all described his deep hatred against all black people. Yori believed he was superior because of his own race, yet his distaste for anyone different also extended to the LGBTQ plus community, and he uttered a substantial number of anti Semitic comments as well. There was no evidence that Yori belonged to any kind of hate group. He was a lone wolf, solitary, isolated, and brimming with malignity. Each

of the weapons Yuri carried had swastikas etched into the sides. The firearms were purchased legally, as he had no criminal history that would prevent him from obtaining a gun. Photos were taken of Yori's bedroom, and they showed a bedside table that held multiple bottles of booze and prescription drug containers. A sign bearing the quote joined the Revolution was hung on one wall, and several books about guns were discovered, including one that was titled The Christian and his Machine Gun.

Whether coincidental or not, and it's not likely a coincidence. The shooting fell five years to the date after the shooting at a Jacksonville video game tournament, which we covered in episode seventy four. Yori was born on November twenty eight, two thousand and one. He attended Oak Leaf High School, where a former classmate described Yori as quote introverted, socially awkward, and very involved in internet humor. After graduation, Yori enrolled at Flagler College, but he

was soon dropped for poor academic performance. He landed a job at a local home depot, but that didn't last long and he was apparently let go from the job for reasons unknown. Yori's father said later that after he lost the job at home depot, Yori retreated to his bedroom, where he spent the majority of his time. In twenty sixteen, police were dispatched to Yori's home for a domestic disturbance, which was actually a fight between Yori and his brother.

No arrests were made. At the time of the shooting, Yori's brother was serving a jail sentence for armed robbery. Little else is known about his family. On July sixth, twenty seventeen, there was an incident when fifteen year old Yori claimed to be overwhelmed by stress and indicated that he was going to ride his bike to the Bank of America Tower in Jacksonville and jump off.

He left a suicide note and took off. The police were contacted, but before they could find Yury, his mother located him and brought him home. A state rule called the Baker Act was enacted, allowing for an individual to be detained for seventy two hours pending a mental health evaluation. After the three day hold Yury was released, and because there is no commitment order, there was absolutely nothing barring Yury from legally purchasing the firearms he used to murder

three innocent people. Reducing or closing these loopholes, or perhaps even enhancing existing laws, is quite possibly one of the common sense ways we can enact sensical gun control laws that are meant to protect individuals suffering from mental health issues from

harming themselves or others. Yury worked at a local Dollar Tree from October twenty twenty one to July twenty twenty two, but there are no reports or accounts of any issues that would suggest the reason why he chose one of the discount

stores to attack. As previously mentioned, he had no real criminal record, just a speeding ticket from June twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, where he was reportedly in a two thousand and four Honda Element on Old Middleburg Road driving at a speed of forty one miles per hour in a thirty five mile per hour zone. His social media presence was minimal. He didn't seem to have

any accounts outside of an x formerly known as Twitter account. On that account, you redescribed himself as someone who consumed far too much Arizona iced tea drinks, and he claimed to be an oak Leaf High School graduate with a three point five GPA. He also called himself certified in Adobe Illustrator CS six, Adobe in Design, and Adobe Photoshop. His last post hosts were in twenty nineteen, and one such post included his acceptance letter to Flagler College along with

a caption quote looking forward to a bright career in business administration. The parents of the victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against both the Dollar General and the shooter's parents, claiming that the retail giant neglected to take adequate steps to ensure customer and employee safety. The suit further cites Dollar General failed to ensure that there was proper security at the store, particularly given the fact that the stores

located in a known high crime location. The shooter's parents were blamed for failing to protect the public from quote reasonably foreseeable criminal acts which were likely committed by their son. Occupational Safety and Health Administration also known as OSHA, initiated an investigation in a Dollar General after discovering the hotchpotch of merchandise, shopping carts, boxes and stock that littered the eyeways, which may have prohibited the ability of

customers and employees to easily flee the store. The full report has not been released at the time of this writing. We all have the unique ability to help prevent such a catastrophic event from happening if we keep our eyes and ears open and never hesitate to report when something or someone just doesn't seem right. With the delicate balance of mental health reform, education, active shooter training, and common sense gun laws, we may one day realize the dream, the

dream that there will be no more active shootings. We pray that love will prevail over hate. Too many have died, we should say to ourselves, not one more. In the meantime, we urge our listeners to stay aware of your surroundings and keep in touch with your loved ones. If you see something, say something, you never know how many lives you'll be saving.

Thank you for listening to today's episode of Active Shooter the podcast. Remember, if you see something, say something, there's no telling how many lives you may be saving. A big thank you to Darren Curtis, who composed some of the songs on our show. You can find him online at www Dot Darrencurtis music dot com. Make sure to check us out on social media. You can find us on Facebook at Active Shooter the Podcast and on Twitter at podcast Active. Thank you and be safe.