Buffalo Supermarket ShootingGunman Kills 10 at Buffalo Supermarket in Racist Attack

President Biden called for a thorough investigation, and said there was no harbor for “hate-filled domestic terrorism.” The 18-year-old white gunman, who pleaded not guilty, left behind a manifesto.

Video
Video player loading
The police said the gunman, whom they described as an 18-year-old white man from outside the city, was motivated by racism. He appeared in court hours after the shooting and pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder.CreditCredit...Malik Rainey for The New York Times

Follow our live coverage of the Buffalo mass shooting.

Pinned

10 people are killed and 3 are wounded in a mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store.

BUFFALO — A teenage gunman entranced by a white supremacist ideology known as replacement theory opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo on Saturday, methodically shooting and killing 10 people and injuring three more, almost all of them Black, in one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history.

The authorities identified the gunman as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, a small town in New York’s rural Southern Tier. Mr. Gendron drove more than 200 miles to mount his attack, which he also livestreamed, the police said, a chilling video feed that appeared designed to promote his sinister agenda.

Shortly after Mr. Gendron was captured, a manifesto believed to have been posted online by the gunman emerged, riddled with racist, anti-immigrant views that claimed white Americans were at risk of being replaced by people of color. In the video that appeared to have been captured by the camera affixed to his helmet, an anti-Black racial slur can be seen on the barrel of his weapon.

The attack, at a Tops Friendly Market in a largely Black neighborhood in east Buffalo, conjured grim comparisons to a series of other massacres motivated by racism, including the killing of nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015; an antisemitic rampage in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 that left 11 people dead; and an attack at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, where the man charged had expressed hatred of Latinos. More than 20 people died there.

In the Buffalo grocery store, where four employees were shot, the savagery and planning were evident: Mr. Gendron was armed with an assault weapon and wore body armor, the police said. And his preferred victims seemed clear as well: All told, 11 of the people shot were Black and two were white, the authorities said.

“It was a straight up racially motivated hate crime,” John Garcia, the Erie County sheriff, said.

In a news conference Saturday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul — a Buffalo native — echoed that sentiment and decried the attack as an “act of barbarism” and an “execution of innocent human beings,” as well as a frightening reminder of the dangers of “white supremacist terrorism.”

“It strikes us in our very hearts to know that there is such evil that lurks out there,” Governor Hochul said.

Based on what was written in the manifesto, the attack appeared to have been inspired by earlier massacres that were motivated by racial hatred, including a mosque shooting in New Zealand and the Walmart shooting in Texas, both in 2019.

In the manifesto, which was being reviewed by law enforcement, Mr. Gendron — who had attended a community college in Binghamton, N.Y. — wrote that he had selected the area because it held the largest percentage of Black residents near his home in the state’s Southern Tier, a predominantly white region that borders Pennsylvania.

The document outlined a careful plan to kill as many Black people as possible, complete with the type of gun he would use, a timeline, and where he would eat beforehand.

It also included details of where he would livestream the violence, mayhem that he had also calibrated. He carefully studied the layout of the grocery, writing that he would shoot a security guard before stalking through aisles and firing upon Black shoppers. He wrote that he would shoot some twice, in the chest, when he could.

He wrote he had been “passively preparing” for the Buffalo attack for several years, purchasing ammunition and gear, while infrequently practicing shooting. In January, the plans “actually got serious,” according to the manifesto, which also expressed praise for the perpetrator of the 2015 attack in South Carolina, and for a man who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.

Mr. Gendron had read the racist writings of the New Zealand gunman, who had also livestreamed his attack, a method also used in a shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Halle, Germany, in 2019.

In an arraignment on Saturday evening, Mr. Gendron pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, a charge that could lead to life imprisonment without parole. He spoke little except to confirm he understood the charges, and gave little indication of emotion inside the courtroom.

The United States attorney in Buffalo, Trini E. Ross, said her office was also investigating the killings as federal hate crimes.

Other gunmen have referenced the racist idea known as “replacement theory,” a concept once associated with the far-right fringe, but one that has become increasingly mainstream, pushed by politicians and popular television programs.

Officials said the camera that the gunman wore was used to broadcast the attack live on Twitch, a livestreaming site owned by Amazon that is popular with gamers. On Saturday, Twitch said it had taken the channel offline. Still, screenshots of the broadcast were circulating online, including some that appeared to show the shooter holding a gun and standing over a body in the grocery store.

In his manifesto, Mr. Gendron seemed enthusiastic about broadcasting his attack, saying the livestream let “all people with the internet” watch and record the violence.

The massacre began around 2:30 p.m., the authorities said, when Mr. Gendron arrived at the market stepping out of his car — on a sunny spring afternoon — dressed in tactical gear and body armor and carrying an assault weapon.

He shot four people in the parking lot, the Buffalo police commissioner, Joseph A. Gramaglia, said at the news conference, three of them fatally. When he entered the store and continued shooting, he encountered a security guard, a retired Buffalo police officer who returned fire. But Mr. Gendron was wearing heavy metal plating; he killed the guard and continued into the store, firing on shoppers and employees.

By Julie Walton Shaver

When Buffalo police officers arrived and confronted Mr. Gendron, he put a gun to his neck, but two patrolmen persuaded him to drop his weapon and surrender, Mr. Gramaglia said.

The mayor of Buffalo, Byron W. Brown, said that he and his family periodically shopped at the store.

“Some of the victims of this shooter’s attack are people that all of us standing up here know,” said Mr. Brown, the fifth-term Democrat who was the first Black man elected mayor of Buffalo, New York’s second-most populous city.

The 10 people killed in Buffalo represent the highest number of fatalities in a mass shooting in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks them. The highest death toll this year before that was six, in a shooting in downtown Sacramento on April 3. Six people were also killed in a shooting in Corsicana, Texas, on Feb. 5, and the same number were killed in a shooting in Milwaukee on Jan. 23, according to the site.

In a statement made late Saturday night, President Biden expressed sympathy for the victims’ families and praise for law enforcement, adding that “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,” the president said. “Hate must have no safe harbor.”

Gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded in the United States in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, surging by 35 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday.

The gunfire in Buffalo on Saturday shattered a seemingly serene afternoon, sending shoppers screaming and fleeing inside the Tops, and families scrambling to find loved ones outside the store.

Ken Stephens, 68, a member of a local anti-violence group, described a grisly scene. “I came up here, and bodies were everywhere,” he said.

The attack took place in a neighborhood known as Masten Park on Buffalo’s East Side. Dominique Calhoun, who lives within sight of the supermarket, said she was pulling into its parking lot to buy ice cream with her daughters — eight and nine years old — when she saw people running out and screaming.

“That literally could have been me,” she said of the people who were killed.

Dorothy Simmons, 64, typically spends part of her Saturdays at Tops, shopping for food to prepare for Sunday dinner, something she says is part of a common tradition in her community. On Saturday, however, she was at work in Amherst.

And when she heard the news, she broke down and cried.

“This is our store,” Ms. Simmons said. “This is our store.”

Kellen Browning, Dan Higgins, Luke Hammill, Glenn Thrush, Adam Goldman, Alexandra E. Petri, Ashley Southall, Vimal Patel and Eduardo Medina contributed reporting. Jack Begg contributed research.

Emily Cochrane
May 15, 2022, 12:05 a.m. ET

Representative Brian Higgins, a Democrat who represents Buffalo, said that “today our neighbors, people who left their homes to simply go to work or get groceries, were targeted by a racism-inspired act of domestic terrorism.” “We are hurt, we are grieving, and we will need to come together like Buffalo does to heal,” he said.

Emily Cochrane
May 14, 2022, 11:52 p.m. ET

President Biden called for a thorough investigation of the Buffalo shooting and said that the nation “must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism.” Biden said “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.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 10:45 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Just after 10 p.m., the large crowd had thinned to about two dozen. Police stood behind tape as lights on their cruisers lit the night. Clarence Jones stood nearby, shaking his head. He knew the former Buffalo police officer who was working security at Tops and was killed. “It’s hard to grasp,” Jones said. “It’s hard. It’s hard.”

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 10:27 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Maryam Akaic, left, and a friend light candles across the street from Tops, where they shop often. “If this happened to anyone in my family, I’d want them to light candles for us.”

Image
Credit...Luke Hammill
Kimiko de Freytas-TamuraAlexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 9:49 p.m. ET

‘Bodies were everywhere.’ Witnesses describe the scene at Tops.

Image
The attack, which is being investigated as a hate crime, occurred in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Credit...Brandon Watson/EPA, via Shutterstock

Dominique Calhoun had pulled into the parking lot of a Tops supermarket, about to treat her two daughters to ice cream, when she suddenly saw people running out of the store screaming.

By the time she had exited, 13 people had been shot, 10 of them fatally, after an 18-year-old white gunman opened fire in what has been described by police as a racist attack.

“That literally could’ve been me,” Ms. Calhoun said. “I’m just in shock. I’ve never had something like this happen so close to home.”

Ken Stephens, 68, a member of a local anti-violence group, described a grisly scene. “I came up here, and bodies were everywhere,” he said.

News of the shooting spread quickly across the city. Marilyn Hanson, 60, raced to Tops to make sure her daughter, who lived nearby, wasn’t among the victims; she was safe.

Both Ms. Hanson and her daughter shop at the store often.

“My daughter was so scared because that could’ve been me in that store,” Ms. Hanson said, adding: “If a Black man did this, he’d be dead, too,” referring to the fact that the gunman had surrendered and been taken into custody.

Daniel Love, 24, was inside his Love Barber Shop near the supermarket with his wife when he heard a noise, he said. His wife is from Iraq and immediately recognized the sound of gunfire. He told her to get down, he said. He eventually ran to the parking lot and saw the lifeless body of someone he knew.

Ulysees O. Wingo Sr., a member of the Buffalo Common Council who represents a district adjacent to the site of the shooting, said he also knew some victims. As he spoke, onlookers gathered at the site, with about 100 standing along a side street. Yellow police tape cordoned off the block surrounding the store, and at least two dozen police officers, along with several vehicles, guarded the perimeter.

“This is the largest mass shooting to date in the city of Buffalo,” Mr. Wingo said. “I don’t think anyone here in the city of Buffalo thought that something like this could ever happen, would ever happen.”

Mr. Wingo said most of the shoppers at the Tops supermarket were Black, mirroring the surrounding neighborhood.

Dorothy Simmons, 64, typically spends part of her Saturdays at Tops, shopping for food to prepare for Sunday dinner. “That’s what we do in this community,” said Ms. Simmons, who has lived in East Buffalo all her life. On this Saturday, Ms. Simmons was at work in Amherst when she heard the news. She cried, she said. “This is our store — this is our store,” Ms. Simmons said.

Ms. Simmons, who is Black, said the fact that the gunman was able to surrender showed disparity.

“If that had been my son, it would have never been surrender. We never had a chance to surrender,” Ms. Simmons said. “It would never be that way.”

Dan Higgins contributed reporting from Buffalo, New York.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
May 14, 2022, 9:43 p.m. ET

In Buffalo and some other mass shootings, a shared racist belief that white people could be wiped away.

Through the 180 pages of hate-filled writings that Payton S. Gendron posted online, a common theme emerged: The notion that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color.

Gunmen have referenced the racist idea, known as “replacement theory,” during a string of mass shootings and other violence in recent years. It was once associated with the far-right fringe, but has become increasingly mainstream, pushed by politicians and popular television programs.

And it has repeatedly been the motivation for attacks across the United States and beyond, from the Poway, Ca. synagogue shooting in 2019 to the killing of 51 worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the same year.

The racist theory was directly referenced in a four-page screed written by the man charged with killing more than 20 people in El Paso, which described an attack in response to “the Hispanic invasion of Texas” and outlined fears about the group gaining power in the United States.

One year earlier, when 11 people were killed at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the accused gunman had espoused similar racist views, referring to the people helped by a Jewish agency that aids refugees as “invaders.”

The theory was conceived in the early 2010s by Renaud Camus, a French author who has written about fears of a white genocide, arguing that immigrants who give birth to more children represent a threat to white people.

Mr. Camus has attempted to distance himself from violent white supremacists, decrying killings even as his ideas have been referenced in more attacks. But he told The New York Times in 2019 that he still stands by the notion.

The idea that white people should fear being replaced by “others” has spread through far-right online platforms, shaping discussions among American white nationalists, The Times has reported.

It has also been evident across some acts of violence. About 60 percent of the extremist murders committed in the United States between 2009 and 2019 were committed by people espousing white supremacist ideologies like the replacement theory, the Anti-Defamation League found.

“It is the most mass-violence-inspiring idea in white supremacist circles right now,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “This particular idea has superseded almost everything else in white supremacist circles to become the unifying idea across borders.”

Experts have said the belief represents a shift in the conversations of white supremacists. Several decades ago, they often proclaimed that they were superior because of their race. While that continues today, many now focus on the idea that they fear extinction at the hands of people of color. At a racist rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017, marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

Mr. Gendron, an 18-year-old white man, espoused similar views in the manifesto, directly referencing “racial replacement” and “white genocide.” The first page contained a symbol known as the sonnenrad, or black sun — two concentric circles with jagged beams emanating from the center. The Anti-Defamation League has said it was commonly used in Nazi Germany, and has now been adopted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Mr. Gendron praised nationalism and blamed European men for allowing themselves to get “ethnically replaced.” He lamented diversity in America, writing that people of color should “leave while you still can.” And he criticized progressives, saying they had succeeded only at “teaching white children to hate themselves.”

Ms. Beirich, who reviewed the manifesto on Saturday, said it seemed to contain a “hodgepodge of every crazy white supremacist idea.”

Anushka Patil
May 14, 2022, 9:41 p.m. ET

March For Our Lives, the gun control group founded by teenage survivors of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, said in a statement that American leaders “failed Buffalo.” The shooting was “enabled by loose gun laws and a gun culture that empowers white supremacy,” the statement said, adding, “Our country should have done everything in its power long before this tragedy to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands. But we didn’t. America’s young people know the bitter truth.”

Julie Creswell
May 14, 2022, 8:57 p.m. ET

Tops, the scene of Saturday’s shooting, is one of the largest employers in Western New York.

Image
Police officers on the scene of the mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo on Saturday. Credit...Brandon Watson/EPA, via Shutterstock

Tops Friendly Markets, which is one of the largest employers and a local institution in Western New York, was founded in 1962 and has 150 grocery stores across New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Buffalo’s mayor, Byron Brown, said that the supermarket east of downtown where an 18-year-old man opened fire on Saturday, killing 10 people, was essential to the community. “This is painful,” he said at a news conference. “This does hurt.”

Kathy Sautter, a spokeswoman for Tops, which is based in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, N.Y., said the company was “shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence.”

Like other regional chains, Tops Markets saw significant expansion in the 1970s and 1980s but struggled under a variety of owners as bigger competitors like Walmart, Wegmans and Aldi emerged. In 2007, during a torrid period of buyout deals, Tops Markets was acquired by the private-equity arm of Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley and others. Later, critics said the private-equity owners saddled Tops with $700 million in debt, roughly half of which was paid as dividends and other payments to the private-equity owners.

The weight of that debt made the company unstable after it was purchased in 2013 by a local group of managers, including the current chief executive Frank Curci, forcing the company to file for bankruptcy protection in 2018.

Last year, once again in an attempt to grow larger to better compete with giant grocery store chains, Tops Markets merged with Price Chopper Supermarkets, but the chains retained their own names and identities.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 8:55 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

‘I understand my charges,’ the defendant calmly said at the arraignment.

Image
Payton Gendron during his arraignment in Buffalo City Court.Credit...Mark Mulville/The Buffalo News, via Associated Press

The arraignment on Saturday night, in a small, dimly lit courtroom at Buffalo city court, lasted less than five minutes.

Payton S. Gendron, 18, wore a white paper gown and a Covid mask.

Judge Craig Hannah told Mr. Gendron that he was being charged with first-degree murder and offered to go into more detail.

“I understand my charges,” Mr. Gendron said. The judge then asked if Mr. Gendron could afford his own attorney. After Mr. Gendron replied no, the judge appointed Brian K. Parker as his counsel, and Mr. Parker accepted the assignment and entered a plea of not guilty.

Mr. Gendron’s demeanor was calm throughout the proceeding, and he was held without bail.

The prosecutor said the case would go to a grand jury, with the next court proceeding set for May 19 at 9:30 a.m.

Emily CochraneAishvarya Kavi
May 14, 2022, 8:41 p.m. ET

Lawmakers condemn the hate-based attack in Buffalo and renew calls for gun control.

Image
People hug outside the a supermarket in Buffalo where the police say a gunman motivated by racism killed 10 people on Saturday.Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press

Lawmakers quickly condemned on Saturday the racism that motivated a gunman to open fire in a Buffalo grocery store, and some once again renewed calls for stricter gun control measures.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said he had spoken with the Buffalo mayor and offered assistance, while Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, pledged that she would continue to fight for gun safety legislation and to “defeat the scourge of white supremacy.”

“I ache for the victims and their families,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “I ache for Buffalo. I ache for the tight-knit East Side community. Racism has no place in our state or our country.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California lamented that “another community was shattered by the horrors of gun violence.”

“We must never stop fighting to stop the bloodshed — because enough is enough,” she said.

Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from New York who is set to become the state’s next lieutenant governor, condemned the racist attack and called for stepped up action against hate crimes.

Representative Brian Higgins, a Democrat whose district includes Buffalo, said in a statement he was “horrified by the mass shooting,” and in touch with local leaders. Representative Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York and a candidate for governor, lamented that “a simple Saturday afternoon at the local supermarket should never end like this.”

“The devastating news of today’s tragedy at Tops in Buffalo has New Yorkers in a state of shock and heartbreak thinking about the families and community victimized by this senseless violence,” Mr. Zeldin said. “Raw, violent hate in every form must be driven out of our state however possible.”

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that President Biden had been briefed by his homeland security adviser while spending the weekend at his family home in Delaware.

“He will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as further information develops,” she said. “The president and the first lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones.”

Other lawmakers raised the prospect of imposing stricter limitations on who can purchase a gun, including Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, who called the shooting “a reminder of why we don’t play around with white nationalism.”

“You have to be 21 to buy a pistol in this country,” Mr. Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. “Can we all at least agree we should raise the age to 21 for ARs as well? Shouldn’t everyone have a background check? I think so. These are 90 percent issues, do it now and keep debating the rest.”

That legislation, however, has failed to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold needed to pass most legislation in the Senate because of Republican opposition. Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut and a champion of gun reform, called on his “do-nothing colleagues” to take action.

“Your ‘thoughts’ should be about what you are going to do to end this slaughter,” Mr. Murphy wrote. “Your ‘prayers’ should be for your own salvation — if you choose to sit on your hands — again — and let people die.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Anushka Patil
May 14, 2022, 8:17 p.m. ET

Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who became a gun control advocate after being critically injured in a mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement that she was devastated and furious at what happened in Buffalo. She called for stronger gun laws. “It’s far too easy for people fueled by racist hate to access weapons of war and commit devastation on a massive scale.”

Troy Closson
May 14, 2022, 8:14 p.m. ET

The accused gunman’s racist manifesto outlined a plan to kill Black people and referred to ‘replacement theory.’

Payton S. Gendron, an 18-year-old white man who the police say shot 13 people at a Buffalo grocery store, had posted a hate-filled manifesto online that included an account of detailed planning for the attack and an explanation of his motives and inspiration, according to a senior federal law enforcement official.

The mass shooting was the latest massacre driven by a white supremacist ideology, following similar acts of violence in recent years from El Paso, Tex., to Christchurch, New Zealand. At a news conference on Saturday, the Erie County sheriff, John C. Garcia, called the shooting a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime.”

It unfolded in a largely Black neighborhood in Buffalo, and 11 of the people shot were Black, officials said. Mr. Gendron wrote in his manifesto that he had selected the area because it held the largest percentage of Black residents near his home in the state’s Southern Tier.

On Saturday evening, authorities pored over the document, which outlined each step of a plan to kill as many Black people as possible.

He named the Bushmaster semiautomatic assault rifle he would use. He constructed a full timeline of the day, detailing the parking spot he would drive to, where he would eat beforehand and where he would livestream the violence. And he had carefully studied the layout of the grocery store, writing that he would shoot a security guard near the entrance before walking through aisles and firing upon Black shoppers, shooting them twice in the chest when he could.

His writings were also riddled with racist, anti-immigrant views arguing that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color, a common trope on the far-right known as the “great replacement” theory. The same ideas have motivated gunmen in several other mass shootings.

Mr. Gendron wrote that he was inspired by the perpetrators of other white supremacist acts of violence, naming Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black parishioners in South Carolina in 2015, among other gunmen. His plan for the shooting in Buffalo resembled the 2019 massacre at a Walmart in El Paso, Tex., in which more than 20 people died and the gunman had also posted a four-page screed filled with white supremacist views.

He said that he felt a particular connection to Brenton Harrison Tarrant — calling him the person “who had radicalized him the most.” Mr. Tarrant was sentenced to life without parole for killing 51 Muslims during Friday prayer at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mr. Gendron said that he had watched Mr. Tarrant’s livestream of the attack and read his writings.

Buffalo officials said that Mr. Gendron had “traveled hours from outside” the neighborhood to unleash gunfire at unsuspecting shoppers at an outlet of the regional grocery chain Tops Friendly Markets. He lived in the Southern Tier with his parents and two brothers, according to the manifesto.

A spokeswoman at SUNY Broome Community College near Binghamton added that he was a former student whose dates of attendance were not immediately known.

Mr. Gendron’s writings depicted a man who grew to hold racist views in recent years as he visited fringe online spaces. His beliefs and ideology had moved farther right over the past three years, he wrote.

Around May 2020, during a period of pandemic boredom, Mr. Gendron said that he had begun to frequent 4chan, an anonymous forum, including its Politically Incorrect message board. There, he said, he was exposed to the conspiracy theory that white people are at risk of being replaced.

He had been “passively preparing” for the attack in Buffalo for several years, purchasing ammunition and gear, while infrequently practicing shooting, he wrote. Around January, he wrote, the plans “actually got serious.”

Eduardo Medina and Vimal Patel contributed reporting.

Ashley Southall
May 14, 2022, 8:12 p.m. ET

John Miller, New York Police Department deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said his department was trying to determine if the suspect had any ties to New York City or if officials had any relevant information on the gunman. “While we assess there is no threat to New York City stemming from this incident, out of an abundance of caution, we have shifted counterterrorism and patrol resources to give special attention to a number of locations and areas including major houses of worship in communities of color.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 7:49 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

The gunman was identified in court as Payton S. Gendron. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and was ordered held without bail.

Glenn Thrush
May 14, 2022, 7:41 p.m. ET

A senior federal law enforcement official said investigators were reviewing a “manifesto” believed to have been posted online by the suspect.

The New York Times
May 14, 2022, 7:25 p.m. ET

The death toll in Buffalo is the highest in a mass shooting this year.

Image
Police respond to the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of a supermarket where several people were killed in a shooting on Saturday in Buffalo.Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press

The 10 people killed in a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday afternoon represent the highest number of fatalities in a mass shooting in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings.

The next highest death toll was six, in a shooting in downtown Sacramento on April 3. Six people were also killed in a shooting in Corsicana, Texas, on Feb. 5, and the same number were killed in a shooting in Milwaukee on Jan. 23, according to the site.

The Buffalo shooting took place one day after at least 17 people were wounded in a shooting in downtown Milwaukee, blocks from the arena where an N.B.A. playoff game ended hours earlier, the police said. No one was killed.

Gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded in the United States in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, as gun-related homicides surged by 35 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday.

“This is a historic increase, with the rate having reached the highest level in over 25 years,” Dr. Debra E. Houry, the director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said at a news conference this week.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Julie Creswell
May 14, 2022, 7:13 p.m. ET

Kathy Sautter, a spokeswoman for Tops Friendly Markets, said the company was “shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence." "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," she said. "Our top priority remains the health and well-being of our associates and customers.”

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 6:53 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Barbara Massey Mapps waited anxiously outside of the police tape for news about her 72-year-old sister, who was believed to be in Tops when the shooting occurred. “I’ll be here until I see my sister,” she said.

Kellen Browning
May 14, 2022, 6:47 p.m. ET

The gunman broadcast the attack on a livestreaming site.

Follow our live coverage of the mass shooting in Buffalo.

Officials said the gunman broadcast the attack live on Twitch, the livestreaming site owned by Amazon that is popular with gamers.

Twitch said it had taken the channel offline within two minutes of the violence starting. The channel’s page said only that it was “currently unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s community guidelines or terms of service.”

In a statement, a Twitch spokeswoman said the site “has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents. The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”

Screenshots of the broadcast were circulating online, including some that appeared to show the shooter holding a gun and standing over a body in the grocery store.

In a manifesto posted on the forum 4chan, the shooter wrote that he would use a GoPro Hero 7 Black camera to “livestream the attack on Twitch,” which he chose so “all people with the internet could watch and record.” He noted that the shooting at a Jewish synagogue in Halle, Germany, in 2019 was also livestreamed on Twitch.

Other social media posts showed what was said to be a list of instructions the shooter had made for himself — a to-do list that included “continue writing manifesto” and “test livestream function before the actual attack” — on the messaging platform Discord. The Discord user name matched the name of the Twitch channel.

Discord has taken steps to improve its content moderation in recent years — especially after white supremacists used the site to plan the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. But it still relies heavily on user reports, particularly in private servers that are invite-only and less visible externally.

Discord said it was investigating the postings, which had been made in a private server, and was working with law enforcement officials but would not comment further.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims and their families, and we will do everything we can to assist law enforcement in the investigation,” the company said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:35 p.m. ET

Among the 10 victims who died in the shooting on Saturday was a retired Buffalo police officer who was working as a security guard and who engaged with the shooter after he entered Tops, officials said. He struck the suspect, but the suspect was wearing body armor. The security guard was ultimately killed. Joseph A. Gramaglia, the Buffalo police commissioner, called the security guard “a hero in our eyes.”

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:23 p.m. ET

Officials said the suspect, who used an assault weapon, was heavily armed with tactical gear, including wearing a tactical helmet.

Thomas Kaplan
May 14, 2022, 6:23 p.m. ET

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that President Biden had been briefed by his homeland security adviser: “He will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as further information develops. The president and the first lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones.”

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:19 p.m. ET

Mayor Brown said that this supermarket is essential to the community. People from the neighborhood shop at Tops: It is a store full of familiar faces. “This is painful. This does hurt,” he said.

Image
Credit...John Normile/Getty Images

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:13 p.m. ET

Officials said that out of the 13 victims, 11 were Black and two were white.

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:13 p.m. ET

Flynn said there were "certain pieces of evidence" the office has obtained in the course of the investigation that indicate racial animosity. He did not elaborate on what those pieces of evidence were.

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:10 p.m. ET

John J. Flynn, district attorney for Erie County, said the suspect is likely to be arraigned within the hour and that the suspect will be charged with murder in the first degree.

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:05 p.m. ET

“Whatever we need, we will not stop until justice is brought to this community,” Ross said at the presser.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:05 p.m. ET

Trini E. Ross, the U.S. Attorney for the western district of New York, said that the the U.S. attorney’s office will be investigating this case, along with law enforcement partners, as a hate crime and case of domestic violent extremism.

Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:04 p.m. ET

Stephen Belongia, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I. Buffalo field office, said the shooting was being investigated both as a hate crime and a "case of racially motivated violent extremism.”

Image
Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 6:01 p.m. ET

John C. Garcia, the Erie County sheriff, said that “this was a straight up racially motivated hate crime.” He added that someone from “outside of our community came to inflict evil. “I urge everyone to stay calm,” he said.

Video
Video player loading
CreditCredit...WKBW.COM via Associated Press
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 5:57 p.m. ET

Gramaglia said that a total of 13 people were shot. Ten died at the scene, and the others suffered non-threatening injuries.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 5:57 p.m. ET

During a presser, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said that the shooter, an 18-year-old white male, traveled from outside of Buffalo. The suspect shot four people in the parking lot. Three are deceased.

Video
Video player loading
CreditCredit...WKBW.COM via Associated Press
Alexandra E. Petri
May 14, 2022, 5:53 p.m. ET

Byron Brown, mayor of Buffalo, said that the shooter is in custody. “The shooter was not from this community. In fact, the shooter traveled hours from outside this community to perpetrate this crime on the people of Buffalo.”

Image
Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press
Glenn Thrush
May 14, 2022, 5:43 p.m. ET

President Biden has been briefed on the shooting and the White House is monitoring the situation, a spokesman said.

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 5:43 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Dominique Calhoun, who lives on Laurel Street, within sight of the Tops supermarket, said she was pulling into the grocery store's parking lot when the shooting happened. She said she saw people running out and screaming, so she parked across the street. She was with her two daughters, 8 and 9 years old, and they had planned to buy ice cream. “That literally could have been me,” she said of the people who were killed. “I’m just in shock. I’ve never had something like this happen so close to home.”

Image
Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Thomas Kaplan
May 14, 2022, 5:38 p.m. ET

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has been briefed on the shooting, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is on the scene, according to spokespeople for the Justice Department and A.T.F.

Dan Higgins
May 14, 2022, 5:36 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Kat Alexander, 31, was taking shelter from the rain on Saturday outside the market. “My family lives here, my nieces live here. It’s just so unfair,” Alexander, who lives nearby, said, adding that she feels like her family members have to look over their shoulders now. “This is so unfair. It’s disgusting.”

Alex Traub
May 14, 2022, 5:30 p.m. ET

At least 10 people have been killed in the shooting at the Tops supermarket, according to a person familiar with the government’s investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before a scheduled press conference. The Associated Press also quoted law enforcement officials who said 10 people had died.

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 5:25 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Ken Stephens, 68, a member of a local anti-violence group, said he saw several people who had been killed when he arrived at the supermarket. “I came up here and bodies was everywhere,” he said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 5:17 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Marilyn Hanson, 60, said she came to the supermarket to make sure her daughter, who lives nearby, was not inside the store. “I shop at this Tops all the time," she said. "My daughter was so scared, because that could have been me in that store.” She said she would be scared to shop there in the future.

Image
Credit...Joshua Bessex/Associated Press
Dan Higgins
May 14, 2022, 5:15 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Many were feared dead in the shooting. Witnesses said there was more than one person lying in the parking lot, and news outlets reported police officials saying there were multiple people dead.

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 5:14 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Sonya James, special education teacher at Maritime Charter School, stood near the scene, hoping to confirm whether any Maritime students were in the store. At least a half dozen students work at the Tops supermarket, she said. “We’re so saddened,” she said.

Luke Hammill
May 14, 2022, 5:11 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Mark Manna, of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, which represents workers at the store wiped away tears as he spoke near the scene of the shooting. “It’s a dark day for these grocery store workers, and all essential workers, who just come in and punch a clock,” he said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Dan Higgins
May 14, 2022, 5:02 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo

Daniel Love, 24, owns Love Beauty Shop, near the supermarket, and several other shops in the area. Love was inside when he heard a noise, he said. His wife is from Iraq and immediately recognized the sound of gunfire. That is when he told her to get down, he said.

Dan Higgins
May 14, 2022, 4:58 p.m. ET

reporting from Buffalo
Image
Credit...Dan Higgins for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Dan Higgins for The New York Times
Image
Credit...Dan Higgins for The New York Times
Alex Traub
May 14, 2022, 4:21 p.m. ET

‘I don’t think anyone here in the city of Buffalo thought that something like this could ever happen,’ a councilman says.

Ulysess O. Wingo Sr., a city council member who represents a district adjacent to the site of the shooting, emphasized in a phone interview that Buffalo was small enough for a shooting of this magnitude to affect many residents of the city.

“With this number of people falling victim to this senseless murder — this massacre of the people in the city of Buffalo — I, unfortunately, do know some of the fallen,” he said.

Since he said some families are not yet aware of the deaths, he declined to specify how many people he knew who had died or explain how he knew the victims, but he added he had been in touch with the mayor’s office about details of the attack.

“This is the largest mass shooting to date in the city of Buffalo,” he said. “I don’t think anyone here in the city of Buffalo thought that something like this could ever happen, would ever happen. For the most part, the vast majority of homicides in the city of Buffalo are targeted. This was not targeted, and we do not know what the motive was, but I am absolutely sick to my stomach.”

Councilman Wingo also said that he was aware of the Tops market where the attack occurred. He said its demographic of shoppers was the same as the demographic of the surrounding neighborhood — mostly Black people.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT