Payton Grendon, Alleged Buffalo Shooter, Will Be Prosecuted For ‘Hate Crime’ After Supermarket Rampage

The teenage gunman and racist fanatic who shot dead 10 people and wounded three others at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday did some “reconnaissance” a day before the incident, police said. mass shooting, police said.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told reporters on Sunday that two days earlier, Payton Grendon 18 years old test Top friendly market when he was looking for places with a large concentration of black residents to be the target of a massacre. The teen then returned to the store Saturday afternoon with three weapons before committing what officials have described as a “racist hate crime.”

“This person came here with the express purpose of taking as many black lives as possible,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a news conference Sunday.

Gendron has so far been charged with first-degree murder for the attack, which was streamed live on Twitch and appears to be the work of a white supremacist bewitched by a myth. about the plot to wipe out the whites.

Authorities have previously indicated that the incident had all the hallmarks of a hate-fueled extremist attack, but Sunday’s comments represent the clearest indication yet of the attacks. allegation against Grendon will be upgraded. Gramaglia added that the FBI brought in specialized equipment to handle the crime scene inside the Tops Friendly Market, where the teenager is believed to have attacked 13 people with a gun.

Footage shows Gendron wearing a helmet-mounted camera as he exits a car with a rifle. The weapon appears to be inscribed with racist slurs and other messages, including a in connection with the marching attack of a Black man in Wisconsin Last year, that became an obsession among the far right.

Gendron then intentionally shot four people in the parking lot with an M4 military-style assault rifle before entering the supermarket, police said. Gramaglia said Sunday that Gendron had three guns with him on Saturday – but left two of them in the car.

Aaron Salter Jr., a 30-year veteran of the Buffalo Police Department, pulled out his weapon and attempted to take out the teenager. But police say Gendron killed him before he shot and killed six others inside the store and was about to leave, at which point he was persuaded to surrender.

“The Buffalo police responded in less than two minutes… They saved so many lives because of it,” added Mayor Brown.

Gramaglia added that Grendon was brought in by state police for a mental health assessment last June following a joint threat at a high school in the Binghamton area. He noted that the incident was not of a racial nature.

But the commissioner announced that Saturday’s attack “will be prosecuted as a hate crime.”