IN THE WORLD TODAY

Shooter was on radar of state police

THE 18-year-old accused of shooting and killing 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket, Payton Gendron, had appeared on the radar of police last year after he threatened to carry out a shooting at a high school, a police official has said.

New York State Police said troopers were called to Susquehanna High School in Conklin in New York State on June 8, 2021, for a report that a 17-year-old student had made threatening statements. Police said the student was taken into custody under a state mental health law and taken to a hospital for an evaluation. The police statement did not give the student’s name.

Police are working to confirm the authenticity of a 180-page manifesto that was posted online, which detailed the plot and identified Gendron by name as the gunman, the official added.

Gendron’s parents were cooperating with investigators, the official added. Authorities say the shooting was motivated by racial hatred and Gedron had researched the local demographics while looking for places with a high concentration of black residents.

Police said the gunman in military gear used a helmet camera to livestream the attack in Buffalo, New York state, on mostly black shoppers and workers on Saturday. For at least two minutes, he broadcast the shooting live on the streaming platform Twitch before the service ended his transmission.

Police said he shot 11 black victims and two who were white before surrendering to police. Later, he appeared before a judge in a paper medical gown and was arraigned on murder charges.