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An 18-year-old white man opened fire in a New York state supermarket on Saturday, killing at least 10, most of them African-Americans, as authorities denounce another racist killing of a supremacist White.
“We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism,” Buffalo FBI police officer Stephen Belongia said at a news conference in that city. North American, on the shores of Lake Erie, on the border with Canada.
The killer, who was heavily armed, was immediately arrested on the spot, initially prosecuted for “premeditated murder” and imprisoned.
It is about a young white man who was equipped with an “assault weapon”, a bulletproof vest, military-style clothing, a helmet and a camera to broadcast his crime live on the internet, announced the local police and judicial authorities.
Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia reported “ten people killed” and three others injured. Eleven were black people and two were white, in this predominantly African-American neighborhood of Buffalo.
According to Commissioner Gramaglia, the killer first shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket, killing three of them, before entering the business and committing carnage there.
There, a security guard, a retired policeman, shot the assailant but the latter, protected by his bulletproof vest, was not injured and shot the guard.
“Badly Embodied”
When the police arrived very quickly on the scene, the young man turned his weapon against him, at the level of his neck, before surrendering to the police, according to Commissioner Gramaglia.
The attack is “a hate crime and racially motivated” perpetrated by “evil incarnate,” blasted Erie County Sheriff John Garcia.
Screenshot taken from Twitter
“Hate crime” in the United States refers to an act directed against a targeted person because of elements of their identity such as race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or disability. Considered an aggravated federal offence, it carries harsher sentences.
Asked if the shooter faced the death penalty at the federal level, the local representative of the prosecution of the United States Department of Justice replied that “all options were on the table”.
Crime on Twitch
The assailant, who was carrying a camera, began to broadcast his crime on the Twitch platform, which declared itself “devastated” and promised “zero tolerance against all forms of violence”.
According to the social network, the content was deleted “two minutes” after it began to be broadcast, the attacker’s account was “permanently suspended” and “all accounts likely to repost this content are under surveillance”.
American media also mentioned a racist “manifesto” posted on the internet.
According to New York Timesciting this “manifesto”, the suspect was “inspired” by crimes committed by white supremacists, including the 2019 massacre of 51 worshipers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
“Atrocious killing”
The Buffalo News newspaper even revealed that an offensive, racist and taboo word in the United States for black people had been painted in white on the barrel of the weapon.
It is an “excruciating killing by a white supremacist,” New York State Governor Kathy Hochul thundered on Twitter.
According to the mayor of Buffalo, an African-American, Byron Brown, the killer traveled several hours to commit his crime.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden denounced the attack, recalling that “any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is contrary to everything we stand for in America”.
This killing recalls two others: a racist massacre on August 3, 2019 when a 21-year-old far-right man killed 23 people, including eight Mexicans and “Hispanic” people in El Paso, Texas; and when on June 17, 2015 a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In both cases, hateful manifestos had been posted online before the attacks.
Serial shootings and murders in the United States in public places are tragically almost daily and gun crime is on the rise in major cities like New York, Chicago, Miami or San Francisco, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. 2020.
In 2021, guns killed nearly 45,000 people in the United States, including about 24,000 suicides, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive.
The right to possess arms is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Several initiatives by elected officials to strengthen gun laws have failed in Congress in recent years, with the powerful NRA gun lobby remaining highly influential.
Here is the thread of events
At approximately 2:30 p.m., the suspect, an 18-year-old male believed to be out of town, allegedly drove to Buffalo and stopped at a branch of the Tops chain.
He then got out of his vehicle and was heavily armed, says Mr. Gramaglia. The shooter was dressed in tactical gear and a helmet.
The suspect first opened fire on three people in the parking lot of the grocery store. Three of them died.
The shooter then entered the business where a security guard, who was a former police officer, opened fire on the suspect.
Due to his bulletproof gear, the security guard’s bullets did not hurt the shooter. The latter fired in turn and killed the security guard.
Afterwards, the suspect continued to advance through the grocery store, shooting several employees and customers.
Eventually, the 18-year-old returned to the front of the business where the police convinced him to put his gun down after it was pointed at his own neck.
The suspect was therefore able to be arrested and transported to Buffalo Police Headquarters for questioning.