AN 18-year-old white man has shot dead 10 people in a black neighbourhood in New York, which authorities are calling “racially motivated violent extremism.”
The man, named as Payton Gendron was arrested at the scene in the US City of Buffalo, New York, on May 14.
Three other people were wounded in the massacre at the Tops Friendly Market, on Saturday.
Gendron had the n-word written on his rifle as he carried out his attack, according to The Mirror, and streamed the horrific attack online – on video sharing platform Twitch.
Authorities have said he began firing shots in the carpark outside the supermarket.
According to a statement from US Attorney General Merrick Garland, the US Department of Justice is investigating the mass shooting “as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that 11 of the victims have been identified as black and two have been described as white.
“This was pure evil,” said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia in a news conference.
“It was straight up racially-motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community.”
Police said the suspect was taken into custody following a stand-off with officers.
Over the weekend, Gendron appeared before a judge in a paper prison clothing and was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge, in which he pleaded not guilty.
US President Joe Biden has condemned the shootings.
In a statement, Biden said: “We still need to learn more about the motivation for [the] shooting as law enforcement does its work, but 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.”
Biden added: “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. Hate must have no safe harbour. We must do everything in our power to end hate-fueled domestic terrorism.”
On Sunday, the White House announced that the president will meet with the families of victims of the mass shooting.
US Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States was seeing “an epidemic of hate”.
CBS news has reported Gendron also apparently posted a racist 180-page manifesto online, which included racist language.
Gendron named Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as one of three ‘high profile enemies’ on a kill list, The Mirror reports.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: “It is my sincere hope that this individual, this white supremacist who just perpetrated a hate crime on an innocent community, will spend the rest of his days behind bars. And heaven help him in the next world as well.”
Witnesses have told local media, the scenes were like “walking onto a horror movie.”
Grady Lewis, witnessed the attack from across the street, told local media outlets he saw a man open fire. “I saw the guy go in, army-style, bent over, just shooting at people,” he said.
According to local news reports, the supermarket was extremely busy as it was the weekend.
The massacre is being compared to the 2015 mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by white supremacist Dlyann Roof.
Roof was sentenced to death on January 10, 2017, and to life in prison without parole on April 10, 2017.
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This is a tragic event. I have seen the pictures of some of the slain of African-heritage men and women; who were murdered whilst conducting their usual activities.
I am troubled by the insistence on calling the Criminal Murderer Mr Payton Gendron, 18 a ” white supremacist.”
This crime should be dealt with as a criminal act rather than transforming this teenage killer’s actions into a “race” crime or a “hate” crime.
If these sorts of crimes are to be reported and prosecuted as a “hate” or “white supremacist” crime. The resulting restrictions and persecution against Caucasian-heritage men will eventually turn against other minority groups who will lose their traditional Free Speech; Free beliefs, and Free Association rights.