JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — What's being done to help the community around the Grand Park Dollar General where three Black people were killed in a racist shooting last year?
First Coat News sat down with Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan to discuss this question. Deegan said economic efforts are being prioritized in this district and several surrounding ones.
Deegan said her thoughts go to an 11-year-old boy when she thinks about the shooting at a Kings Road Dollar General that killed A.J. Laguerre Jr., 19, Angela Carr, 52, and Jerrald Gallion, 29.
“The family of A.J. Laguerre," Deegan said. "I had really developed a relationship with the grandmother who raised the kids after their mother had passed and one of the kids was 11.”
Deegan said her administration is prioritizing infrastructure and health initiatives in districts including where the Dollar General is located. These are areas where CDC data shows life expectancy is lower. It's up to 20 years lower in some zip codes than in other parts of the city.
“That's not acceptable, so that's one of the areas that we've really focused in on with our health policies,” Deegan said.
Deegan said they had a 73% increase in sign-ups for health insurance in that zip code. Deegan explained more than $150 million in capital improvement projects are geared toward “making good on promises” in north and west Jacksonville.
Earlier this month, city council voted down legislation that would have increased penalties for hate speech and displays. Councilmembers said there are already enough laws in place.
At that same council meeting, they approved a historical marker for the Dollar General shooting. It will be a permanent symbol where crosses were hammered into the ground one year ago.
“It's important that we continue to not just talk to talk about making good on those broken promises, but we actually direct policy to where a lot of those things are lifted," Deegan said. "So people can actually see that, yeah, what happens to you happens to us and we want to make sure that you understand that we're all one Jacksonville.”
Deegan said following the Dollar General shooting, the Jacksonville Transformation Coalition was formed. It's a group of leaders with different backgrounds tasked with navigating how the city should move forward. But a year after the shooting, they’re still in the discussion phase, Deegan said.
Dollar General was closed Monday on the anniversary of the shooting.