Authorities said 18-year-old Payton Gendron committed an act of “racially motivated violent extremism” when he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on Saturday at Buffalo’s Tops Friendly Market, where 11 of the 13 injured were black.
“The evidence we have uncovered so far leaves no doubt. This is an absolute racist hate crime that will be prosecuted as a hate crime,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. to reporters on Sunday.
Besides seeking a clearer understanding of the motives behind Gendron’s attack, authorities will focus on what could have been done to stop him, as details of the teenager’s disturbing behavior in high school and his online presence began to emerge.
Gendron first appeared on local law enforcement radar last June when police arrested him after he made a “widespread” threat at his high school, Gramaglia said.
Having undergone a mental health assessment at the time, he was released after a day and a half.
A 180-page manifesto that circulated online, believed to have been authored by Gendron, exposed the “great replacement theory”, a racist conspiracy theory that white people would be replaced by minorities in the United States. and elsewhere.
Another online document believed to have been written by Gendron outlined a to-do list for the attack, including clearing the weapon and testing the livestream he would use to relay it on social media.
A spokesperson for the Erie County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the documents.
Gendron turned himself in to police after the shooting and was charged with first degree murder, which carries a maximum New York sentence of life without parole, but he pleaded not guilty.
Authorities said Gendron drove to Buffalo from his home several hours a day before the attack to conduct a “reconnaissance” of the area.
On Saturday afternoon, he went to the grocery store, where he began the assault which he broadcast live on the social media platform Twitch, a live video service owned by Amazon.com.
Dressed in tactical gear, Gendron opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle he had purchased legally, but then modified illegally. In his car, the authorities found two other weapons, a rifle and a shotgun.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit Buffalo on Tuesday, the White House said in a statement.
“SUSTAINABLE MOVEMENTS”.
Speaking ahead of a Sunday service at Macedonia Baptist Church, Buffalo teenager Jaylah Bell told Reuters the shooting scared him to go to some places.
“It’s really eye-opening,” the 14-year-old said, adding that he was down the street from the grocery store at the time of the shooting.
“I think I’m going to stay closer to my parents, rather than hanging out with my friends, just to feel even safer.”
All the seats in the church were occupied as people gathered in support of the families of the victims, fans being distributed to make up for the lack of air conditioning.
“We are not here for another ‘kumbaya’ moment,” Reverend Julian Cook told the congregation. “Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need sustained movements.”
At nearby True Bethel Baptist Church, a crowd of worshipers held a mourning service, including some of the victims’ families and others who were in the store at the time of the shooting.
Among them was Charles Everhart Sr, 65, whose grandson Zaire Goodman, 20, worked there.
“He was pushing the carts into the store and he was one of the first to get hit,” Everhart said. Although shot in the neck, Goodman survived.
The Buffalo incident follows racially motivated mass murders in recent years, such as the Atlanta spa shooting in March 2021, in which a white man killed eight people while targeting Asians, and the attack on the Pittsburgh Synagogue in October 2018 which left 11 people dead.
Stephen Belongia, FBI special agent in charge of the local office in Buffalo, said the attack would be investigated as both a hate crime and an act of “racially motivated violent extremism” under federal law.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said she was appalled that the suspect managed to broadcast his attack live on social media, which she accused of instigating a “feeding frenzy” of violent extremist ideology.
Social media and streaming platforms like Twitch, which said it deleted the livestream in two minutes, have for years grappled with the task of policing violent and extremist content.
“The user has been suspended from our service indefinitely, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring any accounts reposting this content,” a Twitch spokesperson said.
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