Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old who allegedly gunned down 10 people — all of whom were Black — at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, would have continued his rampage had he not been stopped, Buffalo Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News.
“We have uncovered information that if he escaped the [Tops] supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack,” Gramaglia said. “He had plans to continue driving down Jefferson Ave. to shoot more Black people … possibly go to another store [or] location.”
Authorities are calling Saturday’s massacre a “racially motivated hate crime.”
“This was well-planned … by a sick person,” Gramaglia said.
Evidence points to Gendron self-radicalizing when the pandemic began, spending inordinate amounts of time engrossing himself on hate posts on social media, according to a senior law enforcement source briefed on the case.
Law enforcement assessed that in May 2020, the teen watched a 17-minute video of the gunman who attacked two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, killing 51 people.
In recent months and weeks, some of the items Gendron posted on social media became increasingly violent in tone, a senior law enforcement source said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray called the shooting a “hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism” on a Monday call with state and local partners, according to a source familiar with the phone call.
“The FBI is committed to thoroughly and aggressively investigating Saturday’s attack,” Wray said, according to a source familiar with the call. “Racially motivated violence will not be tolerated in this country.”
Gendron underwent a mental health evaluation after he expressed a desire last June to carry out a murder-suicide. But he was still able to legally buy the semiautomatic rifle police said was used in the attack because no criminal charges resulted from his encounter with New York State Police.
Gramaglia told ABC News the nature of Gendron’s threat last June was “generalized” and included nothing specific.
Officers responded to the shooting scene within one minute and when they approached the suspect, the teen put his assault rifle to his neck, according to the commissioner.
The commissioner praised the responding officers who he said deescalated the situation and convinced the gunman to drop his weapon, saving countless lives.
Multiple high-capacity magazines were recovered on Gendron and in his car, the commissioner said. While he declined to say what evidence pointed to additional shooting plans, the commissioner said investigators have been going through his phone and other electronics.
The teen is from Conklin, New York, which is 200 miles east of Buffalo.
Police determined Gendron arrived in Buffalo on Friday via license plate reader and other evidence, the commissioner said. Police are still working to determine where he stayed overnight before Saturday’s attack.
Shonnell Harris Teague, an operations manager at Tops, said she saw Gendron sitting on a bench outside of the store on Friday afternoon. She said he was there for several hours with a camper bag on his back, dressed in the same camouflage outfit he wore Saturday.
She said Gendron entered the store Friday evening, and appeared as if he was bothering customers. Teague asked him to leave and he did so without an argument.
The next time Teague saw him was on Saturday as a mass shooting unfolded at her store. She escaped out of the back when she saw Gendron.
“I see him with his gear on and his gun and how it was all strapped on. … I seen all the other bodies on the ground. … It was just a nightmare,” she said.
Gendron has been arraigned on one count of first-degree murder and is due back in court on May 19.
Meanwhile, a Buffalo man, Joseph Chowaniec, has been charged with making terroristic threats after he allegedly referenced the supermarket shooting during threatening phone calls to a pizzeria and a brewery on Sunday, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said.
“This crime will not be tolerated — especially as we are actively investigating the Jefferson Avenue shooting as a domestic terrorism incident,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said in a statement.
Chowaniec, 52, was arraigned on Monday and is set to return to court on May 20.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Luke Barr and Miles Cohen contributed to this report.
(HOUSTON) — A fight between two groups of people led to a shooting Sunday that left two men dead and three others hurt at a busy Houston flea market, where thousands of people were shopping, authorities said.
The incident unfolded around 1 p.m. at the popular Sunny Flea Market held at the Tia Pancha Center in North Houston, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
All five people shot were involved in a fight and several are suspected of allegedly pulling guns and firing, sparking panic and causing innocent bystanders, including children, to run or dive for cover, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies responding to the call found two men dead at the scene and three others critically wounded.
“A busy Sunday at the flea market with thousands of patrons when this incident went down,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “For now, it appears the wounded were all likely participants in the altercation.”
The sheriff’s office emphasized that the shooting was “not a random act of violence.”
“There is a lot of people … just trying to come out and enjoy the flea market, have something to eat and something to drink, so it’s very tragic,” said Maj. Susan Cotter, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
No innocent bystanders were injured, Cotter said.
Two pistols were recovered at the scene, officials said.
Two possible suspects were detained at the scene and a third possible suspect was among those critically injured and taken to a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.
The investigation is ongoing. One man who was uninjured was arrested for his alleged role in the shooting and charged with tampering with evidence, the sheriff’s office said. He was identified by the sheriff’s office as 27-year-old Angel Flores-Lopez.
Sheriff’s office investigators are combing over video and interviewing witnesses in an effort to identify the shooters, and determine what prompted the fight and shooting.
Family members of one of the men killed identified him as Juan Romero, 29, according to Houston ABC station KTRK-TV.
Romero’s sister, Yeraldi Romero, told KTRK that her brother went to the flea market to enjoy his Sunday, like any other weekend. She said her brother was with their cousin, who was one of those wounded and hospitalized.
“This tragedy happened and I don’t know why,” Yeraldi Romero said. “He always made everyone laugh, very happy, joyful, so it just really hurts because he’s my older brother and I look up to him. It’s very hard.”
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — The relatives of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim slain in this weekend’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, were overcome with emotion at a news conference on Monday.
Ruth Whitfield was a loving wife of 68 years, a devoted mother of four children and a beloved grandmother, her family said.
She was among the 10 people, all of whom were Black, who were gunned down in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Authorities are calling Saturday’s massacre a “racially motivated hate crime.”
Through tears and hugs, her family gathered on Monday to speak to reporters alongside attorneys including civil rights attorney Ben Crump. One family member broke down and sobbed multiple times during the news conference.
Ruth Whitfield went to visit her husband every day in the nursing home where he’s lived for eight years, one of her sons, Garnell Whitfield, a former Buffalo fire chief, told reporters.
He said he doesn’t know how to tell his father that his primary caretaker is gone.
“There’s nothing we can do that’s going to take away the hurt, take away these tears, take away the pain, take away the hole in our hearts. Because part of us is gone,” he said. “For her to be taken from us and taken from this world by someone that’s just full of hate for no reason … it is very hard for us to handle right now.”
He went on, “What I loved most about my mom is how she loved us, how she loved our family unconditionally. How she sacrificed everything for us.”
Daughter Robin Whitfield said, “My mom was my best friend. We went fishing together, we went camping together.”
To the shooter, she said, “How dare you?”
Daughter Angela called her mother an “86-year-old powerhouse. She was beautiful, she was immaculate and she loved us.”
Garnell Whitfield added: “We’re not just hurting — we’re angry … this shouldn’t have happened. We do our best to be good citizens … we believe in God, we trust him, we treat people with decency and we love even our enemies.”
He called out U.S. leaders for not protecting them and said he’s speaking out in hopes of contributing to positive change.
“We need help. We’re asking you to help us, help us change this. This can’t keep happening,” he said.
Garnell Whitfield told ABC News on Sunday that his mother went to the nursing home nearly every day. It was important to her to be “taking care of him, making sure he was well cared for by the staff, washing, ironing his clothes, making sure he was dressed appropriately, making sure his nails were cut and clean and shaved,” he said.
Even as her own health began to weaken, Ruth Whitfield still tried to visit her husband each day, taking days off only when she felt too debilitated to make the trip, her son said.
After suffering “a very difficult childhood,” Ruth Whitfield “was all about family” when she became a mother, Garnell Whitfield said.
“And she rose above it, and she raised us in spite of all of that, being very poor,” he said. “She raised us to be productive men and women.”
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Payton Gendron, the alleged gunman who shot fatally 10 people in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, would have continued his rampage if he had not been stopped, Buffalo Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News.
“We have uncovered information that if he escaped the [Tops] supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack,” Gramaglia said. “He had plans to continue driving down Jefferson Ave to shoot more black people … possibly go to another store [or] location.”
Gendron, wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet, allegedly shot four people in the parking lot of a Tops supermarket around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, three fatally. He proceeded inside the store where he was confronted by a retired Buffalo police officer working security, police said. The gunman then proceeded to shoot nine more people inside the store, police said.
All 10 victims who died in the attack were Black — six females and four males ranging in age from 32 to 86, law enforcement officials said. One of the wounded victims was Black while the two others were white, officials said.
The three survivors were hospitalized with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, authorities said. Four of the shooting victims were store employees; the others were customers.
(LAGUNA WOODS, Calif.) — One person was killed and five were wounded in a shooting at a church in Laguna Woods, California, on Sunday, authorities said.
Four were critically hurt and one person suffered minor injuries from the shooting inside the Geneva Presbyterian Church, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tweeted. All victims are adults and range in age from 66 to 92 years old, the sheriff’s office said.
A group of churchgoers detained the suspect and hogtied his legs with an extension cord and confiscated two handguns from him before more people could be shot, according to Jeff Hallock, Undersheriff at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
“That group of churchgoers displayed what we believed exceptional heroism, heroism and bravery in interfering or intervening to stop the suspect,” Hallock said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said later Sunday that it had arrested a suspect who was described as an Asian man in his 60s. The suspect will not be identified until after he is booked into the Orange County Jail, the department said.
The man was taken into custody and two firearms were recovered at the scene, authorities said.
Investigators are working to determine where the suspect lives and whether he has any connections to the church or its congregants; they are unsure if he is from the area.
“The Presbytery of Los Ranchos is deeply saddened by a fatal shooting that occurred at a lunch reception honoring a former pastor of the Taiwanese congregation that nests at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods,” Tom Cramer, Presbytery head of staff, said in a statement Sunday. “Please keep the leadership of the Taiwanese congregation and Geneva in your prayers as they care for those traumatized by this shooting.”
The suspect opened fire at a lunch banquet at the church following a morning service, Hallock said.
The shooting was reported at about 1:26 p.m. local time, authorities said.
Hallock said a motive and whether the suspect had an intended target is unknown.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are en route to assist local officials.
There were 30-40 people inside the church when the shooting began, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Libby March for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Ten people were killed and another three wounded when a mass shooting erupted at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that authorities allege was a “racially motivated hate crime” carried out by heavily armed white teenager who fired a barrage of 50 shots outside and inside the market.
An 18-year-old male suspect is in custody, police said. The shooter livestreamed the Saturday afternoon attack on social media, authorities said.
The gunman, wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet, shot four people in the parking lot of a Tops supermarket around 2:30 p.m., three fatally. He proceeded inside the store where he was confronted by a retired Buffalo police officer working security, police said.
The guard shot and struck the suspect but without effect due to the body armor, police said.
The gunman then proceeded to shoot nine more people inside the store, police said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News on Sunday that police officers arrived at the store within one minute of getting the first report of the shooting in progress and raced toward the gunfire to confront the suspect.
Gramaglia said that upon seeing the officers, the assailant placed the barrel of an assault-type rifle up to his neck and threatened to shoot himself. He said officers were able to de-escalate the situation and talked the suspect into dropping the weapon.
“He had dropped down to his knees and began taking off his tactical gear and they immediately took them into custody,” Gramagilia said.
Among the 13 victims shot, 11 were Black and two were white, authorities said.
Four of the shooting victims were store employees while the rest were customers, authorities said.
The Buffalo police officer working security was among those killed, according to a law enforcement official. He was identified as Aaron Salter Jr. by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
“He’s a true hero,” Gramagilia said of Salter. “He went down fighting. He went towards the gunfire.”
Gramagilia said the suspect fired 50 shots during the attack and has several more loaded ammunition magazines when he was taken into custody.
Three victims suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, authorities said.
Brown ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff at city facilities, including police stations, fire stations and Niagara Square in the heart of Buffalo.
No other suspects are outstanding, a law enforcement official said.
The suspect — identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York — was arraigned Saturday on one count of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail, according to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. His office is also investigating terrorism charges, he said.
The suspect traveled from a New York county several hours away to the Buffalo store, authorities said.
Gramagilia said investigators believe the suspect arrived in Buffalo on Friday.
“It seems that he had come here to scope out the area, to do a little reconnaissance work on the area, before he carried out his just evil, sickening act,” Gramagilia said. During a news conference Saturday, Mayor Brown described the shooting as “the worst nightmare any community can face.”
Gendron legally purchased the AR-15 assault-style rifle used in the Buffalo supermarket shooting at a gun store in his home county of Broome, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed during an interview with ABC New York City station WABC.
The rifle was modified by what Hochul called an “enhanced magazine,” which is illegal in New York, Hochul said.
The FBI is separately investigating the attack as a hate crime and as racially motivated violent extremism.
Early indications are the shooter may have possessed extremist beliefs cultivated online, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
A 180-page document believed to have been posted on the internet by Gendron before he allegedly committed the massacre is a hate-filled screed fixated on the notion of “replacement theory,” a white supremacist belief that non-whites will eventually replace white people because they have higher birth rates, according to a copy viewed by ABC News.
Gendron, the purported author of the document, embraces racist and anti-Semitic tropes throughout the document. He also included photos of himself and described why he decided to carry out the attack, largely focused on replacement theory.
Investigators are looking at multiple online postings that may be associated with the shooter that include praise for South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof and the New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, according to the document.
The document also includes a detailed plan for his alleged attack, stating time, place and manner. He allegedly even mapped out his planned route through the store and allegedly wrote that he targeted the Buffalo Tops market because it is a predominantly Black neighborhood, according to the document.
Gendron allegedly wrote that he understood he could be killed, but if he survived and goes to trial, he said he intends to plead guilty.
“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia told reporters. “It was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community … coming into our community and trying to inflict evil upon us.”
During an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, Hochul said investigators probing Gendron’s background have found other disturbing documents he wrote as a high school student and that he was under observation of medial authorities.
“I want to know what people knew and when they knew it and calling upon law enforcement as well as our social media platforms,” Hochul said.
She added that depraved ideas fermenting on social media are “spreading like a virus” and need to be monitored and shut down.
“It has to stop, because otherwise, there’s no stopping it,” Hochul said.
Hochul said she has directed the New York State Police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to assist in the investigation.
A home linked to the suspect in Conklin, a town near Binghamton in Broome County, was searched by the FBI and New York State Police Saturday evening, according to law enforcement officials and eyewitnesses. Hochul confirmed during a news briefing that a home in Broome County was searched Saturday.
Authorities did not specify which social media platform the suspect used to allegedly livestream the shooting. But following the attack, the livestreaming platform Twitch said it had indefinitely suspended a user over the shooting in Buffalo.
“Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents,” a Twitch spokesperson said in a statement. “The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”
The company said it removed the stream within two minutes of the violence starting and is monitoring Twitch for any re-streams of the content or related content.
“A horrible day in the history [of] our community,” Eri County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Like too many communities in our nation, we’ve been impacted by the horror [of] a mass shooting. My thoughts are about the deceased and with their families at this terrible time.”
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, his press secretary said.
“He will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as further information develops,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “The president and the first lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland was also made aware of the incident.
“The Justice Department is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism. The Justice Department is committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims,” the statement from the department read.
Tops Friendly Markets said in a statement it was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting and offered condolences to the victims and their families.
“We appreciate the quick response of local law enforcement and are providing all available resources to assist authorities in the ongoing investigation,” the Amherst, New York-based supermarket chain said.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the organization was “shattered” and “extremely angered” by the incident.
“This is absolutely devastating. Our hearts are with the community and all who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” Johnson said. “Hate and racism have no place in America.”
The Buffalo shooting prompted the New York Police Department to provide increased security at Black churches around New York City “in the event of any copycat,” the NYPD said in a statement.
“While we assess there is no threat to New York City stemming from this incident,” the NYPD said in its statement, “out of an abundance of caution, we have shifted counterterrorism and patrol resources to give special attention to a number of locations and areas including major houses of worship in communities of color.”
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — A retired police officer is being praised for the valiant actions he took to protect others when a gunman opened fire on a supermarket, killing 10 people in an alleged hate crime.
Aaron Salter was working as a security guard for the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, when a gunman shot four people in the parking lot, according to the Buffalo Police Department.
Once the shooter, outfitted in military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet, proceeded inside the store, Salter confronted him, shooting and striking the man, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia told ABC News Sunday.
But those bullets had no effect due to body armor the suspect wore, and the gunman returned fire, striking Salter, Gramaglia said.
The gunman shot nine people inside the store, livestreaming the entire massacre on social media. Salter was one of 10 people killed in the mass shooting.
Four of the shooting victims were store employees while the rest were customers, authorities said.
While it is not clear how many more victims were saved due to Salter’s actions, Gramaglia said, “We’re sure he saved lives yesterday,”
“He went down fighting,” Gramaglia said, describing him as a true hero. “He came in, he went towards the gunfire. He went towards the fight.”
Salter retired from the police department several years ago and had been a “beloved” member of Tops as a security guard, Gramaglia said.
“He took on a responsibility to protect the customers and the employees in the store,” Gramaglia said. “And he did exactly what he signed up for.”
One Tops employee, a mother of seven, told ABC News Sunday that if it hadn’t been for Salter, she and her 20-year-old daughter, who was working at the register, would not have known the gunman was headed in their direction.
When she saw Salter pull out his weapon, they knew they had to run, and they both made it out alive, she said.
Buffalo police officers responded to the scene “within one minute” of Salter being shot and encountered the gunman, Gramaglia said.
The gunman then pointed the assault rifle to his neck in a threat to kill himself, but officers were able to deescalate the situation and talk him into dropping the weapon, Gramaglia said. The suspect then dropped to his knees and began taking off his tactical gear, and officers took him into custody, Gramaglia said.
Investigators from the FBI, New York State Police and other agencies revealed that the gunman — identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York — was in the Buffalo area at least a day before the shooting to prepare for the attack.
“It seems that he had come here to scope out the area to do a little reconnaissance work on the area before he carried out his just evil, sickening act,” Gramaglia said.
Gendron had legally purchased the AR-15 assault-style rifle allegedly used in the Buffalo supermarket shooting at a gun store in his home county of Broome, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed during an interview with ABC New York City station WABC on Saturday.
The gun had been modified with an “enhanced magazine,” which is illegal in New York, Hochul said.
The FBI is separately investigating the attack as a hate crime and as racially motivated violent extremism. Early indications are the shooter may have possessed extremist beliefs cultivated online, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Among the 13 victims shot, 11 were Black and two were white, authorities said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff at city facilities, including police stations, fire stations and Niagara Square in the heart of Buffalo.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(BUFFALO, N.Y) — The 18-year-old suspect who allegedly shot and killed ten people at a supermarket on Saturday afternoon in the heart of a Black community in Buffalo, appears to have been motivated by extremist beliefs and has a history of making violent threats, according to authorities.
Payton S. Gendron allegedly traveled more than three hours from Conklin, New York, to the Tops Friendly Market, according to law enforcement, to carry out the attack in a predominantly Black community.
He was wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet when he shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket around 2:30 p.m. and then allegedly shot nine people inside before surrendering to authorities.
He was confronted by a retired Buffalo police officer working security who shot the suspect but without effect due to the suspect’s body armor, police said.
Grendon was arraigned on one count of first-degree murder to which he pleaded not guilty. He has been ordered to be held without bail, according to the Eric County District Attorney’s office.
Online writings
Law enforcement sources told ABC News the alleged shooter’s extremist beliefs may have been cultivated online and he appears to have expressed racially motivated extremist views in his online postings.
A 180-page document believed to have been posted on the internet by the suspect, is a hate-filled screed fixated on the notion of “replacement theory,” a white supremacist belief that non-whites will eventually replace white people because they have higher birth rates, authorities said.
Gendron, the purported author of the document, espouses racist and anti-Semitic tropes throughout the document, which he appears to have posted before he carried out the alleged attack, according to authorities.
Among the posts that investigators are looking at include online writings in which the suspect praises other mass shooters who were also motivated by racist ideology, including South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof, the New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant and the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Gregory Bowers.
In the document, the suspect also appears to outline a plan for his alleged attack, including time and place, and writes that he chose this location because there is a high concentration of Black people in the area.
Suspect’s history
Neighbors of the Gendron family told ABC News that the suspect is a former student at Broome Community College, part of the State University of New York college system — a detail confirmed by a spokesperson for the school.
Police in Broome County, New York, were called by a local high school in June 2021 after they reported that Gendron threatened a shooting at graduation or during that time, law enforcement sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News. Following a police investigation, no charges were filed against Gendron, who received a mental health evaluation and counseling after the incident.
A home associated with Gendron was searched by the FBI and New York state police, law enforcement officials and eyewitnesses confirmed to ABC News.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told ABC station in New York, WABC, that Gendron legally purchased the AR-15 assault-style rifle that was allegedly used in the supermarket shooting at a gun store in his home county of Broome.
But the “legally obtained weapon” was modified and became “illegal,” Hochul said.
“It’s mostly the illegal guns and magazine capacity enhancements that are causing a lot of problems in New York City and all the way here to Buffalo,” she added.
What’s next
Gendron was arraigned on Saturday evening before the Buffalo City Court on one count of first-degree murder, according to a statement from the Erie County District Attorney’s office.
The suspect entered a plea of not guilty. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the DA’s office.
But according to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, further charges against Gendron are possible.
“My office is working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our partners in law enforcement into potential terrorism and hate crimes. This is an active investigation and additional charges may be filed,” Flynn said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the shooting as “a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The Justice Department is committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims,” Garland said.
Gendron’s next court hearing is set for May 19 and will remain in custody, where he is ordered to be held without bail, according to the DA’s office.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Bill Hutchison, John Santucci, Laura Romero and Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
Libby March for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a mother of seven, was at work at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, when she heard gunshots.
“We all looked toward the front door. We saw the security guard backing up, reaching for his weapon. And we ran,” she said.
One of Stanfield’s children — her 20-year-old daughter — was also working at the store, at register 6.
In the commotion, Stanfield said she realized she was separated from her daughter.
“I didn’t know where she was. And I just thought, if she’s gone, I gotta get out of here. She’s got babies — she has a newborn, and she has a 3-year-old, so I still had to get out. If I went back for her and she was gone, I would be gone, too. And then they’ll have nobody,” Stanfield said, overcome with emotion. “So I still ran and ran out the back.”
Stanfield later learned her daughter was crouched down by a register during the gunfire and witnessed two people get shot.
Stanfield said her daughter “covered her face” when the gunman walked by so he “wouldn’t hear her breathing.”
“By the grace of God we got out,” she said.
Stanfield and her daughter were among those who escaped alive on Saturday when a gunman killed 10 people — all of whom were Black — at a Buffalo supermarket. Authorities are calling the massacre a “racially-motivated hate crime.” The 18-year-old suspected gunman is in custody.
Annette Parker and her 9-year-old daughter were walking out of a Family Dollar store, just a few feet away from the grocery store, when they heard gunshots.
Parker picked up her daughter and started running, she told ABC News.
“My mother lives down the street … so I ran towards her house,” she said.
Parker said her daughter is terrified, and they’re staying with family.
But Parker, with tears in her eyes, said hate won’t stop her from going back.
“That’s not gonna stop me or my daughter. This is my community,” she said.
ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos, Katie O’Brien and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
Libby March for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — At least 10 people are dead and another three wounded after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that authorities said was a “racially motivated hate crime.”
An 18-year-old white, male suspect is in custody, police said. The shooter live-streamed the attack on social media, authorities said.
The gunman, wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet, shot four people in the parking lot of a Tops supermarket around 2:30 p.m., three fatally. He proceeded inside the store where he was confronted by a retired Buffalo police officer working security, police said.
The guard shot and struck the suspect, but without effect due to the body armor, police said.
The gunman then proceeded to shoot nine more people inside the store, police said. He threatened to shoot himself before dropping his gun and surrendering to police, authorities said.
Among the 13 victims shot, 11 were African American and two were white, authorities said.
Four of the shooting victims were store employees, while the rest were customers, authorities said. The Buffalo police officer working security was among those killed, according to a law enforcement official.
Three victims suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, authorities said.
The scene is no longer active and no other suspects are outstanding, a law enforcement official said.
The gun was legally obtained but modified with illegal magazines, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“There is no depth to the outrage I’m feeling right now,” she said during a briefing Saturday.
The suspect — identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York — was arraigned on one count of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail Saturday evening, according to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. His office is also investigating terrorism charges, he said.
The suspect traveled from a New York county several hours away to the Buffalo store, authorities said.
“This is the worst nightmare any community can face,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a press briefing Saturday.
The FBI is separately investigating the attack as a hate crime and as racially motivated violent extremism.
Early indications are the shooter may have possessed extremist beliefs cultivated online, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Investigators are looking at multiple online postings that may be associated with the shooter that include praise for South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof and the New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, according to the sources.
“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia told reporters. “It was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community…coming into our community and trying to inflict evil upon us.”
Flynn said there are pieces of evidence that “indicate some racial animosity,” but would not elaborate more at this point in the investigation.
Hochul said she has directed the New York State Police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to assist in the investigation.
A home associated with the suspect in Conklin, a town near Binghamton in Broome County, was being searched by the FBI and New York State Police Saturday evening, according to law enforcement officials and eyewitnesses. Hochul confirmed during a news briefing that a home in Broome County was being searched Saturday.
Authorities did not specify which social media platform the suspect used to allegedly livestream the shooting. But following the attack, the video game live streaming platform Twitch said it had indefinitely suspended a user over the shooting in Buffalo.
“Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents,” a Twitch spokesperson said in a statement. “The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”
The company said it removed the stream within two minutes of the violence starting and is monitoring Twitch for any restreams of the content or related content.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz also tweeted Saturday afternoon that he had been “advised of an active multiple shooting event” at the supermarket.
“A horrible day in the history [of] our community,” Poloncarz said in a statement. “Like too many communities in our nation, we’ve been impacted by the horror [of] a mass shooting. My thoughts are about the deceased and with their families at this terrible time.”
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, his press secretary said.
“He will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as further information develops,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “The President and the First Lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland was also made aware of the incident.
“The Justice Department is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism. The Justice Department is committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims,” the statement read.
Tops Friendly Markets said in a statement it was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting and offered condolences to the victims and their families.
“We appreciate the quick response of local law enforcement and are providing all available resources to assist authorities in the ongoing investigation,” the Amherst, New York-based supermarket chain said.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the organization was “shattered” and “extremely angered” by the incident.
“This is absolutely devastating. Our hearts are with the community and all who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” Johnson said. “Hate and racism have no place in America.”
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
