It was reported that the 18-year-old gunman, who entered a supermarket in the city of Buffalo, New York, USA, killed 10 people and injured 3 others. The attacker, who broadcast the attack live on the internet, was seen wearing a steel vest and helmet. The perpetrator was taken into custody after the attack.
According to the statement of the Buffalo Police, which gave information about the incident, the attacker first opened fire on four people in the parking lot of the supermarket, three of whom were reported to have died. It was reported that the attacker, who entered the supermarket afterward, opened fire randomly, and that a former policeman working as a security guard at the supermarket was among the dead. It was announced that the attacker, who turned his gun on himself when the police arrived at the scene, was persuaded at the last moment and taken into custody. Buffalo police confirmed that the attacker broadcast the event live on the Twitch platform, and announced that the broadcast was interrupted by Twich two minutes after the attack began. It was also stated that investigations are continuing to prevent the broadcast from being broadcast on the internet on other platforms.
A racism and hate crimes investigation was launched regarding the attack, in which all victims were reported to be black. “We are investigating both hate crimes and extreme violence motivated by racism in this case,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement. “It’s clear that the attack was orchestrated by someone outside of our congregation and was a racist-motivated hate crime,” said John Garcia, the sheriff of the Erie township where the incident took place. The prosecution also announced that there was evidence that the perpetrator “acted with racist hatred”.
The prosecutor’s office announced that a lawsuit was filed against the perpetrator on the charge of murder, demanding life imprisonment. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the perpetrator arrived in the area a few hours before the attack to carry out the attack. Buffalo is known as a predominantly black area.
The perpetrator published a manifesto on the Internet.
According to the news in the US media, the authorities also started an investigation on the detailed “manifesto” published by the perpetrator before the incident. According to the news, the perpetrator included the attack plan and racist views in the manifesto he posted on the internet.
According to a report in the local newspaper The Buffalo News, the semi-automatic weapon used by the perpetrator in the attack has the number 14, the symbol of white racists in the USA.
Racist attacks occur frequently in the USA. In 2019, a racist attacker killed 23 people in El Paso, where Latin Americans live. Four years ago, a white attacker who attacked a black church in the state of South Carolina killed nine people. In both cases, the attackers posted their “manifestos” containing hate speech on the Internet.
AFP/BO,JD