A heavily armed man dressed in combat gear opened fire on Saturday May 14 in a supermarket in the city of Buffalo, New York, killing at least 10 people and injuring three. He was quickly arrested by the police, according to local authorities.
The assailant, an 18-year-old young man whose identity has not yet been revealed, is said to have traveled long hours from another county in this state to get to this Tops supermarket. At the end of the afternoon, he first shot four people in the parking lot of the store, before going inside to continue his killing. According to local authorities, he broadcast the massacre live using a camera positioned on the helmet he was wearing.
“It is a day of great pain for our community”said Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown. “Many of us have been to this supermarket often. We cannot let this hateful person divide our community or our country. »
The trail of a racist crime
According to Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, the killer’s motive was racist. “It was absolute evil”, he said during a press conference. “It was clearly a racist hate crime. » The supermarket is in a neighborhood populated mostly by African Americans. Authorities say among the 13 victims were eleven black people and two white people.
The FBI took over the investigation. “We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism”said Stephen Belongia, special agent in charge of the Buffalo office of the FBI, during a press conference.