On Saturday, an 18-year-old white man opened fire in the parking lot of a supermarket in Buffalo, US, when he was in business. It killed ten people and three others are injured at this time. In the eyes of the police and authorities, the racist intent of this crime, the victims of which are predominantly black, is beyond doubt.
An 18-year-old white man opened fire at a convenience store in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, killing at least 10 people, most of them African American. The authorities denounce a new racist massacre of a white supremacist.
“We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism,” Buffalo FBI Officer Stephen Belongia said at a news conference in this North American city on the shores of Lake Erie, bordering Canada. The killer was immediately arrested on the spot, initially charged with “premeditated homicide” and imprisoned.
The killer turned himself in to the police
It was an 18-year-old 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, local police and judicial authorities said. Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia said “ten people were killed” and three others injured. In this predominantly African-American neighborhood of Buffalo, there were eleven blacks and two whites.
According to Inspector Gramaglia, the killer first shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket, killing three of them before entering the store and committing a bloodbath there. There, a security guard, a retired police officer, shot the attacker, but the latter, protected by his bulletproof vest, was unharmed and shot the security guard.
When police arrived at the scene very quickly, the young man pointed his gun at him at neck level before surrendering to police, according to Inspector Gramaglia.
“Evil Incarnate”
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said the attack was “a hate crime and racially motivated” by “the evil incarnate.” “Hate crime” in the United States refers to an act directed against a target person based on elements of their identity such as race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability. It is considered a serious federal offense and carries severe penalties.
When asked if the shooter faces the federal death penalty, the US Department of Justice’s local attorney general’s office said “all options are on the table.”
A crime broadcast on Twitch, a racist manifesto posted online
The attacker, who was wearing a camera, began broadcasting his crime on the Twitch platform, which declared itself “devastated” and pledged “zero tolerance of all forms of violence.” According to the social network, the content was deleted “two minutes” after it began broadcasting, the attacker’s account was “permanently banned” and “any accounts likely to repost this content will be monitored.”
American media have also mentioned an online “manifesto” of a racist nature, as is often the case with crimes committed by white supremacists. The Buffalo News even revealed that a horribly offensive, racist, and taboo word in the United States to refer to black people had been painted in white on the barrel of the gun.
It was an “agonizing murder by a white supremacist,” New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul thundered on Twitter.
For his part, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, an African American, denounced the fact that the killer had traveled several hours to commit his crime in a predominantly black Buffalo neighborhood.