Alleged shooter Peyton S. Hendron of Conklin, New York, told the Discord chat app and online forum 4chan that he chose a specific zip code in Buffalo because he has the highest percentage of blacks close enough to where he lives. Police and other officials described the mass shooting as a hate crime.
In his publications, the suspect said he visited Tops Friendly Market three times on March 8 to study the layout, as well as during the day when there were the most customers. He planned his attack for mid-March, according to reports, but postponed the date several times.
The alleged gunman was arrested immediately afterwards and is under surveillance for suicide after pleading not guilty to first-degree murder, according to authorities.
- The suspect visited a supermarket the day before the attack: Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramagia said the suspect was at the Tops Friendly Market the day before the shooting, “doing intelligence”. He was also there in early March, Gramagia said.
- The attack would have continued elsewhere if the suspect had not been stopped: the suspect had other “target locations” down the street, according to Eri County Sheriff John Garcia. Authorities found another rifle and shotgun in his car, said Garcia, who attributed the swift arrival of two police officers to prevent other attacks.
- An inscription seen on the suspect’s firearms: CNN received a photo of two of the firearms in the alleged shooter’s vehicle that were not used in the shooting. Inscriptions can be seen on the weapons, including the phrase “White life matters” and what appears to be the name of a victim of a crime committed by a black suspect.
- The video shows the shooter apologizing, saving a man’s life: A video obtained by CNN and filmed during the shooting shows the shooter turning his weapon against a man who is curled up on the ground near something that looks like a cash register . The man shouts “No” and the shooter then says “I’m sorry”, turns and walks away. The video ends at this stage and it is not known what happened after that. It is not clear why the man was apparently spared or why the shooter apologized.
- The family did not visit the suspect in prison: Investigators spoke with the suspect’s family and described them as “upset” and “upset” by what happened, Sheriff Garcia said. The alleged shooter met with his team of lawyers while in custody, he said, but there were no family requests to visit the shooter.
- Federal charges may apply to shootings: Federal prosecutors are working to bring charges against the suspect in the coming days, law enforcement officials say, and will be in addition to state charges. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Saturday that the Justice Department was investigating the attack as “a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism”.
- President’s visit on Tuesday: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Buffalo on Tuesday to meet with the families of the victims, first aid workers and community leaders.
Racist beliefs shared in jealousy allegedly suspected
After the shooting, officers examined what they considered to be the racist intent of the suspect and his story.
“We continue to investigate this case as a hate crime, a federal hate crime and as a crime committed by a racially motivated, violent extremist,” said Stephen Belongia, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Buffalo, on Sunday. conference.
The massacre has followed other mass shootings in recent years, with authorities claiming a white supremacy suspect was motivated by racial hatred, including in El Paso, Texas, Charleston, South Carolina and as far as Norway and New Zealand. In a 180-page diatribe related to the suspect, he said he had joined the theory of “great replacement” or the false belief that white Americans were “replaced” by people of other races. Once the ultimate idea, substitution theory has recently become a topic of conversation for Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, as well as other prominent conservatives. A year ago, the suspect was caught on police radar as a student at Susquehanna Valley High School, officials said.
He made a “sinister” reference to suicide via a virtual learning platform in June, the central school district of the Sasquieha Valley announced on Monday. Although the threat was not specific and did not involve other students, the instructor immediately informed an administrator who escalated the matter to New York State Police, a CNN spokesman said, adding that the law limits what more school officials can say.
Society mourns the loss of loved ones
The 10 people killed on Saturday ranged in age from 32 to 86, police said, including a former police officer who tried to stop the attacker and a number of people who regularly shop for groceries. Authorities say 11 of the 13 people shot were blacks. Sadness and disappointment were still palpable among many who came to the supermarket to pay their respects and show their support.
“We are a community in Buffalo. If you’re a black-and-brown person, you knew someone was affected, “said Filisha Dove, a local business owner and activist. “This is the impact of white supremacy. This was not a case of mental health, this is someone who is focused on a poor community, highly concentrated by poor black people, and caught us in our most vulnerable moment.”
“I feel more offended than anything,” resident Darius Morgan told CNN. Born and raised in Buffalo, Morgan said of the shooter, “How dare you come in here? How dare you take this from us? We grew up here, this is our home, and they came in and destroyed it.”
New York Governor Katie Hochul has announced $ 2.8 million in funding for the victims and their families, according to a statement from her office. GoFundMe has also compiled a list of proven fundraisers dedicated to helping after the tragedy.
Artemis Moschagian, Nicki Brown, Laura Lee, Jen Selva, Victor Blackwell, Amanda Watts, David Williams, Jamiel Lynch, Shimon Prokupets, Evan Perez, Eric Levenson, Holly Ian, Steve Almasi and John Pasantino of CNN contributed to this report.
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