Buffalo mass shooting suspect Payton S. Gendron identified as 10 killed in ‘racially motivated’ rampage
An armed teenager captivated by the white supremacist doctrine known as the replacement theory opened fire in a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday. He killed ten people and injured three more, almost all of them black.
The attack took place at a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood in East Buffalo. He drew chilling comparisons to a host of other racial massacres, including the 2015 murder of nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina; an anti-Semitic riot at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people in 2018; and a 2019 attack at a Walmart in El Paso, where the suspect spoke out anti-Latino.
Who was the gunman?
Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Conklin, a small town in remote southern New York, was identified as the gunman by officers. Mr. Gendron traveled more than 200 miles to carry out the attack on him. According to police, he also live-streamed a disturbing video that seemed to promote his dark pursuit.
Shortly after Mr. Gendron was arrested, the gunman allegedly wrote a manifesto and posted it online. It contains racist and anti-immigrant beliefs that suggested white Americans were in danger of being supplanted by people of color. An anti-black racial slur can be seen on the barrel of his rifle in the video that appears to have been caught on his helmet-mounted camera.
11 blacks and two whites were shot
The cruelty and foresight were evident at the Buffalo grocery store when four employees were shot: Mr. Gendron was armed and wearing a bulletproof vest, according to authorities. His favorite victims were also evident: According to officials, 11 of the people shot were black and two were white.
“It was a racially motivated hate crime,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said.
Governor Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, echoed that view at a news conference Saturday night, calling the incident an “act of brutality” and an “execution of innocent human beings” as well as a terrible reminder of the dangers of “whites”. supremacist terrorism.
The crime appears to have been inspired by other atrocities fueled by racial hatred, such as the New Zealand mosque shooting and the Texas Walmart shooting, both of which occurred in 2019.
Mr. Gendron went to a community college in Binghamton, New York. He said in the manifesto that he chose the location because he had the highest percentage of black residents near his home in the southern tier of the state, a majority white region that borders Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gendron pleaded not guilty to first degree murder
Payton S. Gendron pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder at an arraignment Saturday night, a crime that could result in life in prison without the possibility of release. He spoke little inside the courtroom except to indicate that he understood the accusations and showed little emotion.
Trini E. Ross, the federal prosecutor in Buffalo, said the deaths were being investigated as federal hate crimes.
Authorities said the shooter’s camera was used to broadcast the incident live on Twitch, an Amazon-owned live streaming platform popular with gamers. Twitch announced on Saturday that the channel had gone offline.
two parts of Payton Gendron’s manifesto (the mass buffalo shooter). pic.twitter.com/BiNSBQDZXn
– zen (@SELECTOREB) May 15, 2022
Despite this, screenshots of the broadcast were circulating online, including one that appeared to show the gunman standing over a body in the grocery store with a gun.
Gendron seemed pleased to convey his attack in his manifesto. He claimed that the live stream would allow “everyone with the internet” to view and film the brutality.
The carnage began at 2:30 pm, when Gendron arrived at the market dressed in tactical gear and a bulletproof vest and carrying an assault weapon, according to authorities.
