MARKET IN BUFFALO, N.Y. WAS TARGET OF  A WHITE SUPREMISTS

 

… Buffalo Tops Market where 11 of the 13 people who were shot were black.

 

Since 2009, there have been 273 mass shootings in the United States.

 

Police said the suspected gunman was taken into custody after the attack which is being investigated as "a racially-motivated hate crime".

"This was pure evil," said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia in a news conference. "It was straight up racially-motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community."

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: "It is my sincere hope that this individual, this white supremacist who just perpetrated a hate crime on an innocent community, will spend the rest of his days behind bars. And heaven help him in the next world as well."

Court papers named the suspect as Payton Gendron, only 18 years old, of Conklin, New York. He was arraigned and charged with first-degree murder charges hours after the shooting, to which he, of course, pleaded not guilty.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the suspect "travelled hours" to the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue, which was about three miles north of downtown Buffalo.

Investigators believe the man used a helmet camera to live-stream the shootings for at least two minutes before the streaming service ended his transmission. Police are also looking into whether he had posted a manifesto online, which it appears he did. 

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that 11 of the 13 people who were shot were black.

The Buffalo News said the attack had been carried out by a gunman dressed in body armor and armed with a high-powered assault rifle.

He is believed to have shot four people outside the shop, three of them fatally. He then entered the shop where security guard and retired police officer Aaron Salter fired at him.

A bullet hit the gunman but did not penetrate his protective vest. The gunman returned fire and killer Mr Salter, before moving through the shop and firing at other Black people.

Braedyn Kephart and Shane Hill, both 20, told the Associated Press they pulled into the car park just as the gunman was attempting to leave the scene.

They said he was a white male in his late teens or early twenties and wore a full camouflage outfit, a black helmet and carried what appeared to be a rifle.

"He was standing there with the gun to his chin. We were like what the heck is going on? Why does this kid have a gun to his face?" Mr Kephart said.

He said they saw him drop to his knees, adding: "He ripped off his helmet, dropped his gun, and was tackled by the police."

Will G, an employee at the Tops supermarket, told the Buffalo News he walked into the refrigerated section to put milk on the shelves about three minutes before the shooting.

"I just heard shots. Shots and shots and shots," he told the local paper. "It sounded like things were falling over."

A law enforcement official on the scene told the newspaper: "It's like walking onto a horror movie, but everything is real. It is Armageddon-like. It is so overwhelming."

Named among those who died was Ruth Whitfield, the 86-year-old mother of retired Buffalo fire commissioner Garnell Whitfield.

He told the Buffalo News: "My mother was a mother to the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us."

President Joe Biden said: "We grieve for the families of 10 people whose lives were senselessly taken and everyone who is suffering the physical and emotional wounds of this horrific shooting.

The First Lady and I are praying for the victims and their families, and hearts all across this country are with the people of Buffalo."

He added: "We still need to learn more about the motivation for today's shooting as law enforcement does its work, but we don't need anything else to state a clear moral truth: A racially-motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation.  Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is antithetical to everything we stand for in America. Hate must have no safe harbor. We must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism."

Since 2009, there have been 273 mass shootings in the United States, resulting in 1526 people shot and killed and 980 people shot and wounded.

Copyright G. Ater 2022