Teen streams his racial killing spree
MASSACRE: OPENS FIRE IN BUFFALO GROCERY STORE
Semi-automatic weapon had 14 – a white supremacist phrase – written on it.
Aheavily armed 18-yearold white man shot 10 people dead on Saturday at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in a “racially motivated” attack that he live-streamed on camera, authorities said.
The gunman, Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, who was wearing body armour and a helmet, was arrested after the massacre, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. Gramaglia put the toll at 10 dead and three wounded. Eleven of the victims were African-Americans.
The gunman shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket, three of them fatally, then went inside and continued firing, Gramaglia said.
Among those killed inside the store, was a retired police officer working as an armed security guard. Gramaglia added that when police arrived, the shooter put the gun to his neck, but was talked down and surrendered.
Stephen Belongia, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo field office, said the shooting was being investigated as “a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism”.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia described the attack as “pure evil.” “It was straight up a racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community,” he said.
When asked what information led authorities to term the attack a hate crime, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said they had evidence indicating “racial animosity” but did not elaborate.
US media outlets have reported officials are investigating a detailed “manifesto” posted online before the shooting, in which the suspect outlines his plans and racial motivations for the attack.
Quoting from the manifesto, the New York Times reported the suspect had been “inspired” by white supremacist acts of violence, including the massacre of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019.
A semi-automatic weapon used in Saturday’s shooting also had a racial epithet written on it as well as the number 14 – a reference to a white supremacist phrase – according to local daily The Buffalo News, citing a local official.
District Attorney Flynn said the shooter used an “assault weapon” but did not specify which kind. Flynn’s office said in a tweet on Saturday night Conklin had been arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life without parole.
Asked if the shooter could face the death penalty at the federal level, the US attorney for the Western District of New York, Trini Ross, said: “All options are on the table as we go forward with the investigation.”