Civil rights attorney Ben Crump urges Buffalo attack to be investigated as domestic terrorism
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on Monday called for the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting to be treated as terrorism and said the family of at least one victim was considering legal action.
“What happened on Saturday was an act of domestic terrorism. And we have to define it as such,” he said at a press conference. “We can’t sugarcoat it, we can’t try to explain it away by talking about mental illness. No. This was an act of domestic terrorism. Perpetrated by a young, white supremacist.”
The family of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, who was one of the 10 fatalities when avowed white supremacist Peyton Gendron, 18, allegedly opened fire after driving for hours to find a predominantly Black community, has retained Crump.
Other attorneys working for the family said their focus would be on the red flags that failed to ignite preventive action, The Buffalo News reported, as well as the means with which someone of his age and sensibility could buy a military-grade rifle after making threats a year earlier.
“There’s no question about his intentions,” Crump said of the teenaged shooter. “And just like America responds to terrorism, America needs to respond to this act of bigotry, racism and hate as a terrorist act.”
In a separate statement, Crump also said his firm was going to make sure the bereaved got answers, and implied that could include taking legal action.
“We are thoroughly investigating the shooting and the events leading up to it,” he said in the statement on his firm’s website. “These grieving families deserve to know how a white supremacist, so vocal about his hatred, was able to carry out a premeditated and targeted act of terrorism against Black people – all while armed with an assault rifle fitted with a high-capacity magazine. It’s an all-too familiar scenario, with the same tragic, but preventable ending.”
He said at least some accountability rested with the pundits, politicians and social media managers, those “who curate the hate” and had contributed to Gendron’s mindset, though he stopped short of saying they would be subjects of any lawsuits.
“Even though they did not pull the trigger, they did load the gun,” Crump said, according to The Buffalo News.
