Photo: John Normile / Getty Images
Ten people were killed during a mass shooting Saturday afternoon at a Buffalo grocery store
, in the state of New York, in what authorities described as a racist hate crime.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told reporters that a heavily armed 18 year old white male entered the store in a predominantly African American neighborhood and shot at 13 people, including a security guard. The gunman later turned himself in to police and remains in custody, according to The Washington Post.
A senior federal official tasked with enforcing the Law enforcement identified the suspect as Payton S. Gendron, of 18 years old, Conklin’s neighbor in New York. The official said that investigators were reviewing a “manifesto” believed to have been posted online by the suspect.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office said that the gunman was arraigned in Buffalo City Court on one count of first-degree murder. Gendron is being held in custody without bail. A felony hearing is scheduled for Thursday 19 May at 9: 80 am
This is the scene outside Tops on Jefferson Ave. where Buffalo Police say multiple people were shot. Waiting on more details. pic.twitter.com/FhPhbFkHiO
— Marlee Tuskes (@MarleeTuskesTV) May 13, 2022
The gunman was armed with an assault weapon and was wearing a bulletproof vest, police said, and had a video camera attached to his helmet which he used to broadcast the shooting live.
Mass shooter identified: The Associated Press reports the gunman behind today’s mass shooting was an 18-year-old from Conklin, New York. https://t.co/G4rgrULYht
—News 4 Buffalo (@news4buffalo) May 14, 2022
In the minutes and hours after the shooting, they circulated on social networks horrific videos and images that appeared to have been captured by the gunman. In the images, he appears to have written a racial slur on the barrel of his gun, according to The New York Times.
Stephen Belongia, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office, said law enforcement officials were investigating the shooting as a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism
.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that 10 of the 13 people shot were black.
BREAKING: BPD on scene of a mass shooting at the Tops in the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue. Police say multiple people have been struck by gunfire. The shooter is in custody. Motorists and residents are urged to avoid the area.
— Buffalo Police Dept (@BPDAlerts) May 13, 2022
Gramaglia said that the suspect, who was stronglye armed and wearing tactical gear, used a camera to livestream the attack and shot multiple victims in the parking lot before entering the store.
The store Tops Friendly Markets, where the massacre occurred, is Located in a low-income area of Buffalo, is popular and serves many people who live in the area. It is centrally located to several area colleges, including Canisius College and Buffalo State College, as well as several area churches.
The Guard The grocery store’s longtime security guard, a “hero in our eyes,” Gramaglia said, engaged the shooter but was killed in the encounter. Four of the dead were store employees and six were customers, police authorities said.
One of the victims is a retired Buffalo Police Officer who was working as a security guard at the Tops. BPD Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says the security guard shot the suspect, but he was wearing armor and was unharmed.— Marlee Tuskes (@MarleeTuskesTV) May 14, 2022
The Mayor of Buffalo Byron Brown said the shooter, who has not been identified by authorities, was not from the city. Brown said that this has been “a day of great pain for our community”.
Representative Brian Higgins called the event “a terrible tragedy for the city”. He said the shooting was part of a national problem: “When you have assault rifles in the possession of the wrong people, this kind of thing happens.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul reported that he was “closely monitoring” the shooting.
The largest massacre that occurred this year in the United States
The 10 people killed in a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday afternoon represent the largest number of deaths in a mass shooting in the United States so far in the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings.
– The next highest death toll was six, in a shooting in downtown Sacramento on April 3.
– Six people were also killed in a shooting in Corsicana, Texas, on February 5,
– The same number were killed in a shooting in Milwaukee on January 23.