Buffalo Shooting Suspect Bought AR-15 Legally But Modified Gun With Illegal High-Capacity Magazine: Report
Photo by John Normile/Getty Images.
The 18-year-old man who allegedly opened fire in a Buffalo, New York grocery store on Saturday purchased his weapon legally, passing a background check, but altered it with a high-capacity magazine that is illegal under New York law, according to several media reports.
Payton Gendron, a resident of Conklin, New York, lived several hours away from the Tops Friendly Markets grocery store where the shooting occurred. He is alleged to have posted a 180-page manifesto online that contained racist and anti-Semitic views, including voicing support for the conspiracy theory that immigrants are “replacing” America’s white population, and to have targeted this specific store because of its location in a heavily Black neighborhood.
Ten people were killed and three others wounded in the shooting Saturday afternoon, and Gendron was taken into custody by local police. He has been charged with first-degree murder and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole (New York does not have the death penalty). Gendron may also face additional charges for hate crimes or other offenses.
A New York State Police spokesperson confirmed on Saturday that Gendron had been investigated last June for making a threatening statement. According to the New York Times, the investigation was initiated when Gendron had expressed interest in committing a murder-suicide in response to a school assignment asking for high school seniors’ plans for after graduation:
He claimed to be joking, the official said. But the state police were summoned to investigate and took Mr. Gendron, then 17, into custody on June 8 under a state mental health law, police officials said Sunday.
He had a psychiatric evaluation in a hospital but was released within a couple of days, the officials said. Two weeks later, Mr. Gendron graduated and fell off investigators’ radar.
Nothing from that investigation nor any other past behavior by Gendron caused any obstacles to him being able to legally purchase a gun; the Times report added that he had not named any specific person or target that he wanted to kill.
Robert Donald, the owner of the gun shop in Endicott, New York where Gendron allegedly bought the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting, confirmed to the Times that his store’s records showed Gendron had bought the gun there, but he “did not remember the young man at all, even though he said he sells only a half-dozen or so of this type of gun in a year.”
The background report showed no reason he could not legally purchase the gun. “He didn’t stand out, because if he did, I would have never sold him the gun,” said Donald.
CNN reported additional comments from Donald, with him saying that he “couldn’t believe it” when investigators called him to inquire about the gun, the first he had heard of his shop’s connection to the shooting.
“I just can’t believe it. I don’t understand why an 18-year-old would even do this,” he said. “I know I didn’t do anything wrong, but I feel terrible about it.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) confirmed to CNN that Gendron had bought the gun legally but had modified it with a high-capacity magazine that is illegal in New York. According to Gendron’s manifesto, he modified the gun with a parts kit that retails for about $60 and his father’s power drill.
