Ten people were killed and three injured in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, the deadliest mass shooting of 2022.
Summary
Ten people were killed and three injured in the deadliest mass shooting of 2022 at Tops Friendly Market, a Buffalo supermarket.
- Law enforcement described the crime as “racially motivated violent extremism.” Eleven of the 13 victims were black, and two were white. The supermarket is in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo.
- Three people were killed in the parking lot of the grocery store, and an additional seven were shot inside the store, including a retired police officer who exchanged fire with the shooter.
- An 18-year-old suspect, Payton Gendron, is in custody. Gendron apparently traveled over 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York to Buffalo and livestreamed his rampage on Twitch, a social media site.
- President Joe Biden called the massacre “abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation.” Attorney General Merrick Garland said the mass shooting was being investigated as a “hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
- The Erie County Sheriff called the shooter “pure evil” and said, “it was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community.”
- The Washington Post reported police are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime and the Erie County District Attorney said he may pursue domestic terrorism charges against the shooter.
- CNN interviewed witnesses who said the shooter was wearing a bulletproof vest and apparently attempted suicide before police were able to bring him into custody.
- The New York Times covered the shooter’s 180-page white supremacist manifesto. His online screed referenced “replacement theory,” the conspiracy theory that governments are using immigration to replace whites with non-white “others.”
- Replacement theory has been referenced by other white supremacist terrorists who committed racially motivated mass shootings over the past four years in Pittsburgh, PA; Poway, CA; El Paso, TX; and Christchurch, New Zealand.
- Fox News profiled Aaron Salter, a retired police officer who was killed in the shooting trying to protect others. Salter has been hailed as a ‘hero’ by local police.
- The Wall Street Journal noted the shooter described himself as a “fascist, a white supremacist and a racist” in his manifesto and he self-radicalized online during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns.
- Breitbart covered Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s comments calling for new federal laws for gun control and social media in the wake of the Buffalo shooting.
Author’s Take
Mass shootings are fast-developing and it will take time for all the facts to become known. The Buffalo police have not yet formally identified any of the victims besides hero retired police officer Aaron Salter. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is already using the massacre to call for gun control and speech restrictions on social media. It is not yet known how the perpetrator acquired his gun, or whether he was known to police prior to the shooting. It’s unclear what federal gun laws, if any, could have prevented the shooting at time of reporting.
The white supremacist attack in Buffalo has deservedly garnered national attention, but sadly was not the only violent incident to transpire this weekend. Twenty-one people were injured in a Milwaukee mass shooting after a Celtics-Bucks NBA playoff game, and eleven suspects are in custody. A “relentless week of violence” in Baltimore saw eight people killed and at least 16 wounded by gunfire. A pregnant mother and her fiancé were among the eight killed, and her baby is clinging to life in a Baltimore hospital. Since the pandemic, firearm homicides have soared to their highest levels since 1994 and show no signs of slowing.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
