BUFFALO SHOOTER MADE THREAT AGAINST SCHOOL, OFFICIALS SAY
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The white 18-year-old who shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket had researched the local demographics and arrived in the area a day in advance to conduct reconnaissance with the “express purpose” of killing as many Black people as possible, officials said Sunday.
The chilling revelation prompted grief and anger in the predominantly Black neighborhood around Tops Friendly Market, where a group of people gathered to lead chants of “Black lives matter” and mourn victims that included an 86-year-old woman who had just visited her husband in a nursing home and a security guard who fired multiple shots at the suspect.
“Somebody filled his heart so full of hate that he would destroy and devastate our community,” the Rev. Denise Walden-Glenn said.
Speaking at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial service at the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden said “we must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.”
Details emerged about the gunman’s past and Saturday’s rampage, which the shooter livestreamed on Twitch. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, demanded technology companies tell her whether they’ve done “everything humanly possible” to make sure they are monitoring violent content as soon as it appears.
“If not, then I’m going to hold you responsible,” she said.
Twitch said in a statement that it ended the transmission “less than two minutes after the violence started.”
The shooter, identified as Payton Gendron, had previously threatened a shooting at his high school, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia confirmed at a press conference that the then-17-yearold was brought in for a mental health evaluation afterward.
Federal law bars people from owning a gun if a judge has determined they have a “mental defect” or they have been forced into a mental institution — but an evaluation alone would not trigger the prohibition.
Federal authorities were still working to confirm the authenticity of a racist 180-page manifesto that detailed the plot and identified Gendron by name as the gunman. A preliminary investigation found Gendron had repeatedly visited sites espousing white supremacist ideologies and race-based conspiracy theories and extensively researched the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the man who killed dozens at a summer camp in Norway in 2011, the law enforcement official told AP.
Portions of the Twitch video circulating online showed the gunman firing volley after volley of shots in less than a minute as he raced through the parking lot and then the store, pausing for just a moment to reload. At one point, he trains his weapon on a white person cowering behind a checkout counter, but says “Sorry!” and doesn’t shoot.
Screenshots purporting to be from the broadcast appear to show a racial epithet scrawled on his rifle, as well as the number 14 — a likely reference to a white supremacist slogan.
Authorities said he shot, in total, 11 Black people and two white people Saturday.