A judge in Florida is currently contemplating whether or not to add hate crime charges against two of the three males who are accused of chasing a black man into an alley in Jacksonville on May 2 and killing him there. The victim was found dead from his injuries.
At 6:45 in the morning, the body of a man who had been shot to death and left behind in the garbage was found. The victim was 39 years old. Two days later, the government took Holden Emery Dodson, age 21, Ryan Christopher Nichols, age 19, and Daniel James DeGuardia, age 18, into custody.
While DeGuardia and Dodson have been charged with accessory after the fact to killing, Nichols has been charged with second-degree homicide and with tampering with bodily proof.
During the arraignment of DeGuardia, Circuit Court Judge Kim Sadler explored the possibility of elevating their charges to those of a hate crime. If this were to happen, the defendant would face more severe penalties in accordance with Florida law. The identity of the man who passed away has not been made public at this time.
Pictures taken by surveillance equipment revealed that a white Jeep Grand Cherokee drove in through 100 North Julia Street at 2:25 a.m. and parked there. Three white men got out of the car and started walking away from the scene.
Shortly after that, the Black victim was seen running away from the males as they chased him behind trash; the three white suspects then returned to the jeep and drove away from the scene. Another video taken close to a 7-Eleven captured the license plate of the vehicle, which allowed the authorities to track the vehicle all the way back to DeGuardia’s mother’s neighborhood.
The very same evening, DeGuardia had informed the police that he had misplaced his 9mm Glock. Authorities also claimed that a Black woman, 36 years old, was shot and died in the house located on Boulevard and West Twenty-second Street; however, the two deaths do not appear to be related to one another in any way.
The investigation into the incident is still underway, and the local Sheriff’s Office does not have any evidence to suggest that the assault was motivated by hate. (*3) The state of Florida has a long history of lynchings and other acts of racial terror, including hate crimes.
Between the years 1877 and 1950, at least 319 people of African descent were executed by lynching in the state of Florida, with 8 of the executions taking place in the city of Jacksonville.
In recent years, Florida has passed laws that restrict the political power of Black individuals while also focusing on Black historical figures and events.
These laws have contributed to an increase in anti-Black sentiment in the state. The shooting contributes to a rate of gun violence that is already at an all-time high in the country.
According to the Pew Research Center, more people in the United States were killed by guns in 2021 (48,830) than in any previous year on record. In addition, firearms are the primary cause of death among children and young people today.
