JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Federal inspectors with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are joining the investigation weeks after a 21-year-old white gunman shot and killed three Black residents at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville’s New Town neighborhood. He killed himself as police entered the building.
The investigation is not criminal, but inspectors could look for possible workplace violations before the deadly attack.
Dollar General has a long history of federal workplace violations and is facing millions of dollars in fines for what the agency calls “serial safety failures.”
Jerrald Gallian, Angela Carr, AJ Laguerre were the three innocent lives that were taken in an act of hate at the Dollar General store on Kings Road last month.
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On Friday, the store was still fenced off and closed to the public and crews worked inside to make repairs and renovations. In the meantime, people in the community are concerned, worried that the store could have potentially been dangerous by design.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office released surveillance video that showed the gunman entering the store. Police, including a K-9, were outside within minutes, and then officers entered 11 minutes later to search the store. Police then heard a gunshot which investigators said was the killer taking his own life.
In the video, as SWAT officers go down the aisles, there are obstructions, carts and merchandise.
“What you can see is all sorts of clutter, and bins, and rolling carts, things that could have potentially make you think someone may have trouble escaping,” said Charlie McGee, a reporter with the Jacksonville non-profit media outlet The Tributary.
McGee was the first to write about concerns about whether obstructions could have gotten in the way of shoppers and employees and later if it impacted the police search.
“I hope that it gets a conversation going about workplace safety specifically in places like a retail store or a Dollar General,” McGee said.
Dollar General, a company with more than 19,000 stores in the U.S. and Mexico, has a history of complaints and violations about these types of issues.
An April 2023 bulletin from OSHA, shows federal inspectors found store exits and walkways were blocked, boxes were stacked unsafely and workers were at risk. In fact, the multi-billion dollar company is facing more than $16 million in fines since 2017 after nearly 200 inspections.
OSHA now has an open investigation into the Kings Road store.
“A lot of times those stores are very small. And there’s usually a door in the front and a door in the back. And if you’ve got one way in and one way out, or you’ve got two doors, and then one is blocked, and you only have one way one way. Yeah. And that’s in the path of the shooter. That’s a dangerous situation,” said former OSHA supervisor Bud Underwood who’s now a business safety consultant. “If the exits are blocked by product, the first responders would have an extremely difficult time getting into the store to either take the shooter out or to respond to the injuries.”
News4JAX went by two other Jacksonville stores on Beach Boulevard on Friday and found one of the stores had carts and supplies partially blocking the aisle.
The I-TEAM also reviewed the company’s request for building permits from the City of Jacksonville. Pending applications show the company wants to spend $380,000 on doors, walls, security lights, registers and freezers and said they were damaged in the shooting. They plan to reopen the store by October as the community tries to rebuild after the disturbing crime.
OSHA, the FBI, and the DOJ also continue to investigate.
News4JAX tried to contact Dollar General about the OSHA investigation but it did not immediately respond.
The company did say it is pledging a total of more than $2.5 million to community organizations in Jacksonville in addition to a $500,000 donation to the First Coast Relief Fund, $1 million to an employee assistance fund and $50,000 to community food banks to address food insecurity.