Authorities are investigating a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, as a “racially motivated hate crime”.
The attack has left at least 10 people dead and 3 more injured. Per ABC News, 11 of the 13 people shot were Black.
As the suspect shooter, a white male 18-year-old man was taken into police custody. Authorities claim that the attacker streamed the shooting via social media.
Around 2:3 PM, the gunman began his attack in the Tops supermarket parking lot. He opened fire on four people wearing military gear, body armor and a helmet. Three of the four people he shot were killed.
The shooter then entered the store where he was confronted and questioned by a retired Buffalo officer who was acting as a security agent. The shooter, despite being shot and struck by the guard was unaffected by his body armor and continued to shoot nine more people.
BPD Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia gives an account of what happened at Tops on Jefferson Ave. in Buffalo. The shooting is being investigated by the FBI as a hate crime and as an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.
Updating here: https://t.co/qiqtpeOYLB pic.twitter.com/xbUV7hxESp
— 7 News WKBW (@WKBW) May 14, 2022
Police quickly arrived on the scene and the gunman threatened with shooting himself before surrendering.
Since then, the suspect has been identified as Payton Genedron, a New York resident who traveled for several hours to Buffalo’s supermarket.
The FBI and local police are both investigating the attack as hate crime and racially motivated extremism.
John Garcia, Sheriff of Erie County, told reporters that the attack was “pure Evil.”
“It was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community… coming into our community and trying to inflict evil upon us,” he added, per ABC News.
This confirmed white supremacist specifically went to a low income Black neighborhood in Buffalo NY to carry out a mass shooting. These types of white supremacists are ALLOWED to sit online and plot these attacks and nothing is done to thwart this type of anti-Black terrorism. pic.twitter.com/jGmO32PyHB
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) May 14, 2022
“The Justice Department is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism. The Justice Department is committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims,” the statement read.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown spoke at a press briefing yesterday, saying: “This is the worst nightmare any community can face.”
Featured Image Credit: Xinhua / Alamy
