UPDATE: Buffalo Shooting Suspect’s Mugshot Released
The man suspected of opening fire in a Buffalo grocery store, killing 10 people and wounding three more, has been identified.
Police told the Associated Press that 18-year-old Payton Gendron was the suspect arrested at the scene of the shooting. He is expected to be charged with first-degree murder on Saturday night.
“The person responsible for the tragic event today is in custody,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a press conference Saturday. Officials declined to name the suspect at the presser, telling reporters they wanted to wait for his arraignment.
According to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia he “heavily armed” shooter opened fire in the parking lot of Tops Market on Jefferson Ave. around 2:30 p.m. EST, initially shooting four people. He moved into the store, exchanging fire with a security guard — who is a retired police officer — eventually killing the guard and several others.
He then put his gun to his neck, officials said, but police were able to arrest him.
“This is pure evil,” said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. “It is a straight-up racially-motivated hate crime.”
The gunman livestreamed the attack through a camera on his helmet, officials said. According to reports, he posted a manifesto online that espoused extremely racist and anti-Semitic views and endorsed the “white replacement” conspiracy theory.
In the manifesto, Gendron said he lived in Southern Tier, New York all of his life with his two parents and two brothers. He also said he was enrolled in SUNY Broome at the time of the shooting.
Brown said “the shooter traveled hours from outside this community to perpetrate this crime on the people of Buffalo.”
U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross said the shooting will be investigated as a hate crime and case of domestic violent extremism. 11 of the 13 victims were Black, officials said.
Police at the scene described the harrowing aftermath.
“It’s like walking onto a horror movie, but everything is real. It is Armageddon-like,” one police official told the Buffalo News. “It is so overwhelming.”
According to the Associated Press:
Investigators believe the gunman may have been streaming the shooting through a camera affixed to his helmet, one of the officials said. The video showed the gunman, dressed in military gear, pulling up to the front of the store with a rifle on the front seat and then pointing the rifle at people in the parking lot as he exited the vehicle and opening fire, the official said.
It also shows the suspect walking into the supermarket and shooting several other victims inside, the official said. One of the victims was a recently retired police officer who was working as a security guard at the store, according to the official.
Buffalo News had more reporting on the scene:
Shonnell Harris, an operation manager at the Tops, said she heard gun shots and ran frantically through the store, falling several times before exiting out the back. She saw the shooter, whom she described as a white man wearing camouflage. “He looked like he was in the Army.” Harris thought she heard 70 shots.
The shooter had a camera and police are looking into whether he live streamed from the scene, the official said.
The shooter was taken into custody and placed in a police vehicle at the scene, according to the two sources.
The shooter was cloaked in body armor and had a military grade helmet on his head.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
UPDATE 8:48 a.m. ET — The Erie County D.A.’s office has released Gendron’s mugshot:
