BUFFALO, NY (AP) – 18 -year -old white man shot and killed 10 people Buffalo Supermarket analyzed local demographics while looking for locations with high concentrations of blacks who arrived there even a day earlier for reconnaissance, police said Sunday. ‘order.
“This person is going to be here to take as many lives as possible from blacks,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a press conference on Sunday.
The killer, identified as Peyton Gendron, threatened to be shot in his high school in June, a law enforcement spokeswoman told The Associated Press. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the 17-year-old was called for a mental health assessment.
Meanwhile, federal authorities are still working to verify the authenticity of the 180-page racist poster, which detailed the conspiracy and identified Gendron as a gunman, a law enforcement official told the AP. But the hunt – the latest act of widespread violence in the country unchecked by racial tensions, gun violence and the latest wave of hate crime – has been thwarted by locals.
It also prompted New York Governor Katie Hochley of Buffalo to demand that the tech industry be responsible for its role in spreading hate speech.
Hochul told ABC that the heads of tech companies “should take responsibility and make sure they take every possible step to monitor this information.”
“How these bad ideas are smoking on social media – now it’s spreading like a virus,” he said on Sunday, adding that a lack of oversight could make others imitate the shooter.
A Twitch statement claimed the Gendron show was completed “less than two minutes after the violence began.”
The screenshots, believed to be live on Twitch, show the racial epithet describing the weapon used in the attack, as well as the number 14, which likely implies the slogan of white supremacy.
“Then he just met us. I try to be a witness, but it’s too much. “You can’t walk safely into a sworn store,” Buffalo resident Yvonne Woodard told The Associated Press. “Crazy.”
The manifesto posted on the Internet, allegedly written by Gendron, reflects a racist ideology based on the belief that the United States should be owned only by whites. Everything else, the document says, are “substitutes” that need to be removed by force or fear. The attack was intended to intimidate all non-whites, non-Christians and leave the country, it said.
It’s not immediately clear why Gendron traveled approximately 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo House and this particular grocery store, but investigators believe Gendron specifically looked at population demographics. around Tops Friendly Market. Said the officer. The market is mainly located in the black quarter.
In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Gramaglia said Gendron was in town “at least a day earlier”.
“He seems to have come here to measure the area, to do a little reconnaissance, before committing to his bad and sad behavior,” Gramaglia said.
Gendron appeared on police radar last year after threatening to be shot while graduating from Suskehana High School, an official said. New York State Police said soldiers were called to Conklin School on June 8, 2021, for a report that a 17-year-old student had made threatening statements.
Law enforcement officials were not allowed to speak publicly about the investigation and did so on condition of anonymity.
Gendron, who was facing police in the store hall, pointed the rifle at his neck but he made sure to drop it. On Saturday he was arrested on a murder charge, appearing before a judge wearing a paper.
Federal agents investigated Gendron’s parents and issued several search warrants, a law enforcement spokesman told the AP. Gendron’s parents cooperated with investigators, an official said.
Among those killed was security guard Aaron Solter – a retired Buffalo police officer – who fired several guns at Gendron, Gramaglia said Saturday. The bullet hit the armor, but had no effect. Gendron then kills Solter while searching for the victim.
“She cares about the community. “He’s in charge of the store,” said Yvette Mack, who shopped at Topps earlier in the day. “He did well, you know. He was very kind and respected. “
Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnel Whitfield, was also killed.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told church visitors he saw a former firefighter at the scene Saturday looking for his mother.
“My mom just visited my dad, as she does every day, at a retirement home and stopped at Top to shop. “No one heard him,” Whitfield told the then mayor. Brown said he was later confirmed as a victim.
According to the Buffalo News, Catherine Messi, who went to the grocery store, was also killed. The identity of the other victim was not named.
“We pray for their families. But after praying – after getting on our knees – we need to ask for change. We need to seek justice, ”Attorney General Leticia James said at an exciting church service in Buffalo Sunday morning. “It’s internal terrorism, simple and direct”.
Associated Press reporter Robert Bamstead of Buffalo, New York. Balsamo reported from Washington.
Source: Huffpost
