Buffalo mass shooter deliberately targeted Black neighbourhood, Mayor says
As vigils take place on the streets of Buffalo, the anguish of those in attendance is plain to see.
ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore reports on the mass shooting
The 18-year-old gunman who shot and killed 10 people in Buffalo had researched local demographics and arrived with the "express purpose" of killing as many Black people as possible, officials said.
The revelation has prompted vigils filled with grief and anger in the predominantly Black neighbourhood around Tops Friendly Market.
Groups of people gathered to lead chants of "Black lives matter".
They also mourned victims, including an 86-year-old woman who had just visited her husband in a nursing home and a security guard who fired multiple shots at the suspect.
President Joe Biden said: "we must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America."
As the country reeled from its latest mass shooting, new details emerged about the gunman's past and Saturday's rampage, which the shooter live-streamed on Twitch.
The shooter, identified as Payton Gendron, had previously threatened a shooting at his high school, Police officials have said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia confirmed at a press conference that the then-17-year-old was brought in for a mental health evaluation afterwards.
Federal authorities were still working to confirm the authenticity of a racist 180-page manifesto that detailed the plot and identified Gendron by name as the gunman.
A preliminary investigation found Gendron had repeatedly visited sites espousing white supremacist ideologies and race-based conspiracy theories.
He had also extensively researched the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Authorities have confirmed that he shot, in total, 11 Black people and two white people in the horrific supermarket shooting.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said: "This individual came here with the express purpose of taking as many Black lives as he possibly could."
Gendron had travelled about 200 miles from his Conklin, New York, home to Buffalo.
Investigators now believe Gendron had explicitly researched the population's demographics around the Tops Friendly Market, according to an official.
He conducted reconnaissance on the area and store the day before the shooting, Gramaglia said.
The Buffalo attack is just the latest act of mass violence in a country unsettled by racial tensions, gun violence and a recent spate of hate crimes.
It came just a month after a shooting on a Brooklyn subway wounded 10 people and just over a year after 10 people were killed in a shooting at a Colorado supermarket.
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