Buffalo mass shooting remember the victims #AaronSalter #BuffaloPolice #FBI #PaytonGendron #Assault
A day after one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history, law enforcement officials in New York descended on the home of the accused gunman and probed disturbing hints into his behavior, as Gov. Kathy Hochul promised action on hate speech that she said spreads “like a virus.” The suspect, Payton S. Gendron, 18, shot 13 people on Saturday afternoon at a Tops supermarket in east Buffalo, killing 10, officials said. Almost all the victims were Black — shoppers, grocery workers and a security guard bound together by little more than tragic happenstance. But Mr. Gendron picked his target carefully, the police said, choosing an area known for its large Black population and even visiting the neighborhood the day before the attack in what authorities described as “reconnaissance.” And nearly a year before the mass shooting, his words had already caused alarm elsewhere. The police said on Sunday that Mr. Gendron had been picked up at his high school last June by state police after making a threatening remark and had been taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. Responding to a question for a class project about his post-graduation plans, Mr. Gendron said his involved a murder-suicide, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said. But Mr. Gendron described the remark as a joke, the official said. And after the evaluation, which lasted about a day and a half, he was released, according to Joseph Gramaglia, the Buffalo police commissioner. That account was confirmed by Special Agent Steven Belongia of the F.B.I., who said that Mr. Gendron was “not on the radar” of federal authorities. Mr. Gendron, who the police said wore body armor and camouflage during his spree, is believed to have posted a lengthy screed riddled with racist writings and expressing admiration for a white supremacist ideology known as replace
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