A bison shooter searched for a place with a large black population

The young man who shot 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket had studied the demographics of the area and wanted to attack a place with a high influx of black people, and he arrived at the scene at least a day before to recognize the location, authorities reported Sunday.

The individual shot a total of 11 black people and two white people on Saturday, authorities said, adding that they were managing the hypothesis that it was a racist attack.

“This individual came here with the express intent of killing as many black people as possible,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Sunday at a news conference.

The individual, identified as Payton Gendron, threatened to shoot his school last year, a police source told the AP. Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the young man, then 17, was then taken in for a psychiatric evaluation.

Federal authorities are still trying to confirm the authenticity of a 180-page manifesto posted online, outlining the plans in detail and mentioning Payton Gendron by name.

The mass shooting further disrupted a nation ravaged by racial tensions, gun violence and a string of hate crimes.

The incident also prompted New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a native of Buffalo, to demand that tech companies acknowledge responsibility for spreading racism.

Speaking to ABC, Hochul said tech company executives “need to be held accountable and promise us that they’re taking every step humanly possible to monitor this information.”

“The way these vicious ideas ferment on social media is something that spreads like a virus,” the governor said. Without control, he added, someone could try to emulate Buffalo’s offense.

Twitch said in a statement that it stopped Gendron’s stream “less than two minutes after the violence began.”

But footage from the Twitch platform appears to show a racial slur carved into the rifle he used in the attack with the number 14, a possible reference to a white supremacist slogan.

“It’s too much. I’m trying to pull myself together but I can’t. You can’t even go to the store in peace, it’s crazy,” Buffalo resident Yvonne Woodard told the PA.

A preliminary investigation determined that Gendron viewed white supremacist websites and racist conspiracy theories, and researched the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand in 2019 and the massacre in Norway in 2011, the source said.

It was unclear why Gendron had traveled 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo and to this particular supermarket in a very black area.

Police Chief Gramaglia said Sunday that Gendron was in town “at least the day before.”

“Apparently he came here to investigate the area, to recon the area before committing this evil and disgusting act,” Gramaglia said in an interview with ABC.

The young man had come to the attention of police last year when he threatened to shoot at his Susquehanna High School during graduation time, the insider said.

New York State Police officers responded to the Conklin school on June 8, 2021, after receiving a report that a 17-year-old student had made threats.

The student, police said, was taken into custody and taken to hospital for evaluation. The police press release does not mention the student’s name.

Gendron, confronted by police in the store lobby, put the gun to his neck, but officers convinced him to drop it. He was charged later Saturday with murder and appeared before a judge in paper overalls.

Federal agents questioned the young man’s parents and searched several properties, a police source told the AP on Sunday. The parents are cooperating, a source reported.

Among those killed was Aaron Salter, a retired police officer and security guard, who shot Gendron multiple times, Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia said. A bullet hit the attacker’s armor, but did not penetrate it. Gendron then killed Salter before shooting the other victims.

Also among the dead was Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of Buffalo Fire Chief Garnell Whitfield, who, speaking to the Buffalo News, hailed her mother as “a blessing to all”.

Another of the victims was Katherine Massey, who had gone to the store to buy groceries, the newspaper said.

“We pray for their families. But after praying, after standing up, we must demand change, we must demand justice,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said during a church ceremony in Buffalo on Sunday. morning.

It was an act of domestic terrorism, pure and simple,” he added.

Source: Publimetro