A heavily armed man dressed in combat gear opened fire on Saturday, May 14, in a supermarket in the city of Buffalo, New York, killing at least 10 people and injuring three, most of them Afro-Americans. -Americans. The assailant was quickly arrested by the police.
The FBI announces that it is investigating a racist crime. “We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a racially motivated violent extremism case”said Stephen Belongia, special agent of the FBI in Buffalo, during a press conference in this city located on the edge of Lake Erie, just on the border of Canada.
The killer, an 18-year-old young man whose identity has not yet been revealed, is said to have traveled long hours from another county in this state to get to this Tops supermarket. According to local authorities, he broadcast the massacre live using a camera positioned on the helmet he was wearing.
Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia said the suspected killer first shot four people in the supermarket parking lot, killing three, before entering the business. There, a security guard, a former retired policeman, shot the assailant, but the latter, protected by his bulletproof vest, was not injured and shot the guard.
“A racist hate crime”, according to the sheriff
When police arrived at the scene in mid-afternoon, the gunman aimed his gun at him at the neck but eventually surrendered to law enforcement, according to Commissioner Gramaglia. “It is a day of great pain for our community.said Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown. Many of us have been to this supermarket often. We cannot let this hateful person divide our community or our country. »
According to Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, the killer’s motive was racist. “It was absolute evil”, he said during a press conference. “It was clearly a racist hate crime. » The supermarket is in a neighborhood populated mostly by African Americans. Authorities say among the 13 victims were eleven black people and two white people.
The assailant, who was carrying a camera, began to broadcast his crime on the Twitch platform, which declared itself ” devastated “ and promised a “zero tolerance against all forms of violence”. The social network said the attacker’s account had been “permanently suspended” and that it monitors all accounts that may repost this content.
American media have also mentioned a ” manifest “ of a racist nature that would have been disseminated on the Internet and social networks, as is often the case in crimes committed by white supremacists. In front of the press, local county prosecutor John Flynn announced that the suspect would be charged with premeditated murder, before the FBI opened a felony investigation. “racially motivated”.
“An abominable shooting”, for Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden on Saturday evening denounced a “gross shooting”, according to his spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. Visiting New York in February, he protested against the increase in gun violence in the city and promised to do more at the federal level against this scourge.
According to the Small Arms Survey program, in 2017 there were about 393 million firearms in the United States, more than people. In 2021, they caused the death of 45,000 people in the country, including around 24,000 suicides, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive.
The right to possess arms is guaranteed by the Constitution. Several initiatives by elected officials to strengthen gun laws have failed in Congress in recent years.
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