An 18-year-old white gunman fatally shot 10 people to death and wounded three on Saturday at a grocery store in a Black neighborhood of upstate New York, before surrendering after what authorities called an act of “racially motivated violent extremism.” When the officers confronted the suspect at the store, he held a gun to his neck threaten to kill himself, but they convinced him into dropping the weapon and surrendering, Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
Authorities said the alleged white gunman , who was armed with an assault-style rifle had appeared to be acted alone in the attacked, he drove several hours away from his home to launch the afternoon attack to Buffalo and he show in real time on social media platform Twitch, a live video service owned by Amazon.com. He was identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, a town of about 5,000 people in New York’s Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border.
John Flynn Erie County District Attorney said he was charged with first-degree murder which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole as he was arraigned hours after the shooting in state court. New York has no capital punishment. Flynn said the judge also ordered Gendron to remain in custody without bail and to undergo a “forensic examination.” He was scheduled to return to court on May 19.
Eleven of the 13 people struck by gunfire were Black, officials said. The two others were white. The racial breakdown of the dead was not made clear.
