Devastation and anger

Accused killer sought to take ‘as many Black lives as he could,’ mayor says

Latisha, right, a clerk at Tops Friendly Market who called 911 when a gunman opened fire at the supermarket, is consoled at a church service in Buffalo on Sunday. Police said the accused killer had made threats at a school last year.

N.Y. The white 18year-old accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket researched the local demographics and arrived a day in advance to conduct reconnaissance with the intent of killing as many Black people as possible, officials said Sunday.

The racially motivated attack came a year after the accused was taken to a hospital by state police after making threats involving his high school, according to authorities.

He wasn’t charged with a crime and was out of the hospital within a day and a half, police said, but the revelation raised questions about his access to weapons and whether he could have been under closer supervision by law enforcement.

The attack prompted grief and anger in the predominantly Black neighbourhood around Tops Friendly Market. A group of people gathered there Sunday afternoon to lead chants of “Black lives matter” and mourn victims that included an 86-year-old woman who had just visited her husband in a nursing home and a supermarket security guard, both of whom were Black.

“Somebody filled his heart so full of hate that he would destroy and devastate our community,” the Rev. Denise Walden-Glenn said.

Speaking at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial service at the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden said, “We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.”

The Buffalo attack was the deadliest of multiple shootings across the country in recent days. Officials in Milwaukee imposed a curfew after 21 people were injured in three separate shootings near an entertainment district where thousands gathered Friday for an NBA playoff game. Three other shootings over the weekend in the Midwest city left three people dead.

On Sunday, two shootings — one at a Houston flea market and another at a California church — left three people dead and others wounded.

As the country reeled from the Buffalo attack, new details emerged about the accused’s past and Saturday’s rampage, which the shooter livestreamed on Twitch. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, demanded technology companies tell her whether they’ve done “everything humanly possible” to make sure they’re monitoring violent content as soon as it appears.

“If not, then I’m going to hold you responsible,” she said.

Twitch said it ended the transmission “less than two minutes after the violence started.”

New York State Police said troopers were called early last June to the high school then attended by the alleged gunman, Payton Gendron, for a report a 17-year-old student had made threatening statements.

Gendron threatened to carry out a shooting at Susquehanna Valley High School, in Conklin, N.Y., around the time of graduation, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Gendron had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from the hospital.

“This individual came here with the express purpose of taking as many Black lives as he possibly could,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said Sunday.

Federal authorities were still working to confirm the authenticity of a racist 180-page document, purportedly written by Gendron, that detailed his plans for the attack and reasons for carrying it out.

The lengthy statement attributed to Gendron outlined a racist ideology rooted in a belief the United States should belong only to white people. All others, the document said, were “replacers” who should be eliminated by force or terror. The attack was intended to intimidate all non-white, non-Christian people and get them to leave the country, it said.

It said Gendron picked a neighbourhood in Buffalo because it had a high ratio of Black residents. Police said he travelled about 320 kilometres from his home in Conklin.

Gendron was arraigned Saturday on a murder charge.