Buffalo supermarket shooter did ‘reconnaissance’ before attack targeting Black people: police
A manager at the Buffalo supermarket where a racist attacker killed 10 on Saturday says she saw him pretending to be homeless the day before the massacre.
“He was acting like he was homeless and needed change,” Shonnell Teague told the Daily News in a Facebook message on Sunday. “He really was checking out the store.”
The act appeared to be part of what authorities called a “reconnaissance” effort by white 18-year-old Payton Gendron prior to his attack targeting Black people.
“He was in the Buffalo area, he was right in this area the day before,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said at a press conference. “We have identified some of the locations that he was at. We know he did some reconnaissance on the area and the store.”
As investigators tried to put together the timeline leading up to Gendron’s massacre inside a Tops supermarket, Teague recounted her experience during the horrifying attack.
“My daughter and her boyfriend and I were standing right there and came back inside to get snacks, and they [were] at the register when the guy came in shooting,” she wrote on Facebook.
“I just want to thank God for our lives. And my prayers go out to all the victims and their families,” she added.
Gramaglia declined to detail Gendron’s interactions during the hours before the mayhem, which prompted the first 911 call at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the commissioner.
Gendron’s parents were cooperating with authorities, Gramaglia said.
“The state police and FBI are at his house,” he stated. “They’ve spoken with the parents. From what I’ve been told, they’re absolutely distraught, devastated, cooperating.”
Responding officers took Gendron into custody after he killed 10 and wounded three others with an AR-15 rifle, according to Gramaglia. The shooter, who was wearing body armor, “put the gun under his chin” as though to shoot himself. But the officers “talked him down,” the commissioner said.
Another rifle and a shotgun not used in the attack were found in Gendron’s car, Gramaglia said.
Gendron was on “suicide watch” and being kept separate from other detainees at an Erie County jail, said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia.
“He’s on direct observation from our deputies [with] video surveillance,” the sheriff said.
“He will be treated as everyone else is treated within the Erie County holding center — humanely, with respect,” Garcia added. “And he will receive the correctional help and the mental help that is needed.”
Last June, state police investigated Gendron after he made unspecified threats at his high school in Conklin, N.Y., according to Gramaglia. Gendron was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation and released after a day and a half.
“From what I have, it was a generalized threat, not a specific threat directed at a specific place or person,” Gramaglia said.
Asked whether the threat was racist, Gramaglia said no.
“This individual was not on the radar of the FBI,” Special Agent Steven Belongia said at the press conference.
All the victims of the attack have been identified, with their families notified, said Gramaglia.
Gov. Hochul denounced the attack as an act of “white supremacy terrorism,” with authorities vowing to charge Gendron with hate crimes.
Calling for stricter gun laws and a crackdown on online hate speech, the governor voiced a defiant stance.
“To anyone else … who [dares] break the security that every citizen’s entitled to, to make them feel victimized, you’ve just picked a fight with 20 million New Yorkers,” she said. “We’ll continue to stand up because an attack on one is an attack on all.”
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown echoed Hochul’s remarks as he referenced the 180-page white supremacist screed Gendron allegedly posted prior to the attack.
“We won’t let hateful ideology stop the progress that we are seeing and experiencing in the city of Buffalo,” Brown told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The brutal attack sent shockwaves from Buffalo to Washington — where President Biden made a call for national unity — and beyond. The commander-in-chief and First Lady Jill Biden plan to visit Buffalo “to grieve with the community” on Tuesday, the White House said.
“I want to say this publicly, especially to my white pastors: Don’t tell me you’re a friend of our community if you don’t address this today,” Bishop Darius Pridgen told his congregation at True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo, where Hochul and other elected officials also spoke.
The Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network has promised to pay for funeral costs for the victims’ families — an effort to prevent fake online fundraisers from bilking donors — according to the governor.
The NYPD said it deployed extra security to local houses of worship in communities of color.
“While we assess there is no threat to New York City stemming from this incident, 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,” Sgt. Brendan Ryan said in a statement.
Flags were ordered at half-staff at state buildings to honor the victims Monday. Flags were already at half-staff at federal and New York City buildings on Sunday — to honor 1 million American lives lost to COVID — and the Big Apple ones would stay that way for the Buffalo victims on Monday, Mayor Adams’ office said.
With John Annese, Kate Feldman and Peter Sblendorio
