Buffalo shooting: Gunman deliberately sought black victims - mayor
16 May, 2022
Christchurch, El Paso, Pittsburgh and now Buffalo - all places where racially-motivated assailants, radicalised online, have taken their ideology to deadly extremes.
The gunman in Buffalo, like ones before, live-streamed his violent rampage and left a so-called "manifesto" online. It details his extremist beliefs and is packed with cherry-picked statistics, conspiracy theories and internet memes.
The file contains reams of racist and anti-Semitic sludge along with straightforward admissions that the author is a fascist and a white supremacist. If the author can be believed - as the document also clearly contains disinformation and attempts to trick reporters into reporting false stories - he was radicalised early on during the Covid pandemic, on extremist websites and message boards.
Like after the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, big social media companies will struggle to remove footage of the attack.
And surely the American debate over gun control will be reignited, however briefly.
But the underlying problem seems as intractable as ever: a worldwide network of young violent extremists, some of whom are motivated to launch deadly attacks against innocent people.
The attacker, dressed in military gear, drove into the car park at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo at about 14:30 EST (19:30 BST) and began livestreaming the rampage.
A security guard fired several shots back but the gunman's bulletproof vest stopped one that hit him, police said. He then killed the guard and stalked through the store firing at other people.
Mr Gendron was arrested after the attack and has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
Witnesses described horrific scenes. "It's like a nightmare... you see this on TV, you hear about it on TV... but I never thought I would be one of them," said one.
US President Joe Biden said facts were still being established but strongly condemned racist extremism. "We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America," he said.
In a later statement, the White House announced that Mr Biden and the First Lady would travel to Buffalo on Tuesday to meet with the community.
Saturday's attack is thought to be the worst mass shooting so far in the US in 2022. Some 40,000 deaths a year involve firearms in America, a figure that includes suicides - and mass shooting events occur frequently.
Less than a day after the attack in New York state, police in southern California said one person had been killed and five injured in a shooting at a church in Orange County.
A man in his sixties was arrested after some of the churchgoers tackled him and tied him up by the ankles using an extension cord, a local sheriff said.
Source: www.bbc.com