Buffalo mass shooting suspect Payton S. Gendron identified as 10 killed in “racially motivated” rampage

An adolescent gunman enthralled by the white supremacist doctrine known as replacement theory opened fire at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday. He killed ten people and injured three more, almost all of whom were Black.

The attack took place at a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood in east Buffalo. It drew chilling comparisons to a string of other racial massacres, including the 2015 killing of nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C; an antisemitic rampage in a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people in 2018; and a 2019 attack at a Walmart in El Paso, where the suspect expressed anti-Latin.

Who was the gunman?

Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Conklin, a small town in New York’s remote Southern Tier, was identified as the gunman by officials. Mr. Gendron traveled over 200 miles to carry out his attack. According to the police, he also live-streamed a disturbing video feed that appeared to promote his dark objective.

Shortly after Mr. Gendron was apprehended, a manifesto was purportedly written by the gunman and posted 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 by the camera mounted to his helmet.

11 black persons and two white people were shot

The cruelty and forethought were apparent in the Buffalo grocery shop when four employees were shot: Mr. Gendron was armed and wearing body armor, according to the authorities. His favorite victims were also apparent: According to the officials, 11 of the persons shot were black and two were white.

“It was a racially motivated hate crime,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia stated.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, echoed that view at a press conference Saturday evening, calling the incident a “act of brutality” and an “execution of innocent human beings,” as well as a terrible reminder of the perils of “white supremacist terrorism.”

The crime seems to have been inspired by other racial hatred-fueled atrocities, such as the mosque shooting in New Zealand and the Walmart shooting in Texas, both of which occurred in 2019.

Mr. Gendron went to a community college in Binghamton, New York. He stated in the manifesto that he chose the location because it had the highest percentage of Black residents near his home in the state’s Southern Tier, a largely white region bordering Pennsylvania.

Mr. Gendron pled not guilty to murder in the first degree

Payton S. Gendron pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in an arraignment on Saturday evening, a crime that could lead to life in prison without the possibility of release. He spoke little within the courtroom except to indicate that he understood the allegations and showed little emotion.

Trini E. Ross, the United States attorney in Buffalo, said the deaths were being investigated as federal hate crimes.

Officials said the gunman’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 been taken offline.

two parts of Payton Gendron’s (buffalo mass shooter) manifesto. pic.twitter.com/BiNSBQDZXn

— zen (@SELECTOREB) May 15, 2022

Despite this, screenshots of the broadcast were circulating online, including one that looked to show the gunman standing over a body at the grocery shop with a gun.

Mr. Gendron seemed pleased about streaming his attack in his manifesto. He claimed that the livestream would allow “all persons with internet” to see and film the brutality.

The carnage began at 2:30 p.m., when Mr. Gendron arrived at the market dressed in tactical gear and body armour and carrying an assault weapon, according to authorities.

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