Official: The buffalo shooter targeted the Black Neighborhood Health and Fitness

Buffalo, NY (Associated Press) – The 18-year-old white male who shot and killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket conducted a research on local demographics and arrived in the area the day before to conduct a survey with the “explicit purpose” of killing as many blacks as possible, Sunday officials said.

The shocking revelation sparked 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 the victims, including an 86-year-old woman she had just visited. A husband in a nursing home and a security guard fired several shots at the suspect.

Reverend Dennis Walden Glenn said, “Someone has filled his heart so full of hatred that he would destroy and destroy our community.”

Speaking at a memorial service for National Peace Officers at the US Capitol, President Joe Biden said, “We must all work together to address the hatred that remains a stain on the soul of America.”

While the country was reeling from the latest mass shooting, new details emerged about the gunman’s past and Saturday’s rampage, which the shooter broadcast live on Twitch. New York Governor Kathy Hochhol, a Buffalo native, has called on the tech industry to take responsibility for its role in spreading hate speech and violence.

Hochul said she wants tech companies to tell her if they’ve done “everything humanly possible” to make sure they monitor violent content as soon as it surfaces.

“If not,” she said, “I will hold you accountable.”

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

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the shooter, known as Payton Gendron, had previously threatened to shoot his high school. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Grammaglia confirmed at a press conference that the 17-year-old was brought in for a mental health assessment afterwards.

Federal law prohibits people from owning a gun if a judge determines they have a “mentally defective” or have been compelled to enter a mental institution—but evaluation alone will not lead to a ban.

Federal authorities were still working to confirm the authenticity of a 180-page racist manifesto detailing the plot and identifying Gendron by name as the gunman. A preliminary investigation found that Gendron had repeatedly visited websites espousing white supremacist ideologies and race-based conspiracy theories and conducted extensive research into the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, the man who killed dozens at a summer camp in Norway in 2011, and law enforcement . An Associated Press official.

Parts of a Twitch video circulating online showed the gunman firing after a barrage of shots in less than a minute as he walked into the parking lot and then the store, pausing only for a moment to reload. Once, he trained his weapon on a white person shivering behind the pay table, but saying “Excuse me!” And does not shoot.

Screen shots purportedly from the broadcast appear to show a racial epithet written on his rifle, as well as the number 14 – a possible reference to the white supremacist emblem.

Authorities said he shot a total of 11 blacks and two whites on Saturday.

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

The statement, which was posted online, outlined a racist ideology rooted in the belief that the United States should belong only to white people. The document said all others were “substitutes” who should be eliminated by force or terror. She added that the attack was intended to intimidate all non-white and non-Christian people into leaving the country.

It wasn’t immediately clear why Gendron traveled 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Conklin, New York, the home of Buffalo and the specific grocery store, but investigators believe Gendron specifically looked at the demographics of the population around Top Friendly Market. The official said.

Grammaglia said he had conducted a reconnaissance of the area and a warehouse the day before the shooting.

The law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Gendron appeared on police radar last year after threatening to shoot at Susquehanna Valley High School in time for graduation. The official is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

New York State Police said soldiers were called to Conklin School in June to obtain a report that a 17-year-old student had made threatening comments. Authorities said he spent a day and a half in hospital before being released, and then no longer in contact with law enforcement.

Gendron surrendered to the police who confronted him in the vestibule of the supermarket and persuaded him to drop the gun he had stuck to his neck. He appeared before a judge in a paper dress later on Saturday on a charge of premeditated murder.

The law enforcement official said federal agents issued multiple search warrants and interviewed Gendron’s parents, who were cooperating with investigators.

The Buffalo attack was the latest act of mass violence in a country unstable due to racial tensions, gun violence and a recent string of hate crimes. It came just a month after a shooting in a Brooklyn subway left 10 people injured and just over a year after 10 were killed in a Colorado supermarket shooting.

“It’s too much. I try to testify but it’s too much. You can’t even go to the damn store in peace,” Yvonne Woodard of Buffalo told the Associated Press. “It’s just crazy.”

Associated Press reporters Robert Baumstead in Buffalo, Michael Hill in Albany, New York, Travis Lawler in Nashville, and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas contributed reporting. Balsamo reported from Washington.