2022 Buffalo Shooting
On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood.
Ten people, all of whom were African Americans, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date[update], federal charges are still ongoing, and the federal prosecution also expressed their intention to seek the death penalty.
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Gendron is reported to have written a manifesto describing himself as an ethno-nationalist and a supporter of white supremacy who is motivated to commit acts of political violence. He voiced support for the far-right "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory in the context of a "white genocide". The attack has been described as an act of domestic terrorism, and it is also being investigated as a hate crime which was motivated by racism. Governor Kathy Hochul promised policy changes in the state as a result of the attack while condemning the shooter; shortly afterwards, New York banned most semi-automatic sales to people under 21 and certain types of body armor. Around March 19, 2024, a New York judge ruled Reddit and YouTube must face lawsuits in connection with the mass shooting over accusations that they played a role in the radicalization of the shooter.
Shooting
At around 2:30 p.m. EDT (UTC−04:00), 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron arrived at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. He was armed with a Bushmaster XM-15 AR-15-style rifle, modified to accept high-capacity magazines, and multiple 30-round ammunition magazines. In his car, he had a Savage Arms Axis XP hunting rifle and a Mossberg 500 shotgun. He was wearing body armor, a military helmet, and a head-mounted camera, through which he livestreamed the attack on the online service Twitch. As he approached the scene, he was recorded on his livestream saying "just got to go for it".
Gendron first shot four people in the parking lot, killing three. He then entered the store, shooting eight more people and killing six. At 2:31 p.m., Buffalo police received a call reporting shots fired at the store. The first responding officers and firefighters arrived a minute later and reported bodies lying outside the building. At 2:34 p.m., a dispatcher started informing responding officers of an active shooter situation at the store.
According to a law enforcement source, Gendron yelled racial slurs during the incident. Many employees and customers used the store's break room to hide from Gendron and barricaded the door with a heavy desk. Other customers were hidden by employees in the milk cooler and said Gendron shot through the coolers, but the milk cartons stopped the bullets. At some point, an armed security guard, former Buffalo Police Department officer Aaron Salter Jr., shot at him. Due to Gendron's body armor, Salter's bullet did not stop him. Gendron returned fire at Salter, who died at the scene. At another point, he aimed his gun at a white person behind a checkout counter, but he apologized and did not shoot.
By 2:36 p.m., Gendron had gone to the front of the building, where patrol officers were able to talk him into dropping his gun after he reportedly aimed it at his neck. A total of sixty shots were fired during the shooting. After his arrest, Gendron made disturbing statements regarding his motive and state of mind.
Victims
Thirteen people—eleven of them black and two white—were shot, ten fatally. One of them, 55-year-old Aaron Salter Jr., was a former Buffalo Police lieutenant who was working as a security guard when he confronted Gendron. In addition to Salter, the people fatally shot were Celestine Chaney, 65; Roberta A. Drury, 32; Andre Mackniel, 53; Katherine Massey, 72; Margus D. Morrison, 52; Heyward Patterson, 67; Geraldine Talley, 62; Ruth Whitfield, 86; and Pearl Young, 77.
Four victims were employees of the store, including Salter who died; the other three survived. All ten who died were black.
Aftermath
Dozens of residents held a vigil at the supermarket the day after the shooting. True Bethel Baptist Church held a mourning service nearby, which was attended by families of the victims and some of those who survived the attack. A moment of silence was held at game one of the 2022 National Lacrosse League playoffs eastern semifinals being held in Buffalo, between the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits, and the proceeds of the 50/50 raffle were donated to the victims' families. Bandits head coach John Tavares told the media after his team's victory that the athletes played "definitely with a heavy heart" given the circumstances. A charity softball game at Sahlen Field featuring members of the Buffalo Bills held a moment of silence prior to the event and donated a portion of the proceeds to victims' families.
The Tops' closure after the shooting slowed food access in the East Side, where it was the only supermarket since it opened in 2003. Organizations inside and outside the community started programs to fill its absence, distributing and delivering food and clothing to residents. Tops provided free shuttle service to another location and pledged to send refrigerated food trucks daily. The company later stated that it would reopen the store on July 15, with a memorial honoring the victims.
Investigation
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said the shooting was a "straight up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community". Stephen Belongia, the head of the local FBI office, told reporters that the agency was investigating the shooting as both a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism. Police arrested Gendron and transported him to Buffalo Police Headquarters, with police reporting him to be in custody by about 2:36 p.m. Gendron's parents were interviewed by federal agents.
According to the Buffalo police commissioner, they uncovered information that if he escaped the supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack. The county's district attorney said he had evidence that Gendron was motivated by racial animosity. According to law enforcement sources who spoke to The Buffalo News, they were investigating Gendron's alleged contact with a number of people online, including a retired federal agent, and whether these individuals had thirty minutes of advance notice of the attack yet did not notify the authorities.
A separate investigation into the conduct of a 911 operator during the shooting began on May 15. An assistant manager at the Tops store reportedly called 911 and spoke to the dispatcher in a whisper, in order to avoid detection by Gendron. The employee was then reportedly shouted at by the dispatcher, who wondered aloud why the woman was whispering and then allegedly hung up on her. The Office of the Erie County Executive announced the dispatcher was placed on administrative leave and was then fired after a disciplinary hearing.
Perpetrator
Payton S. Gendron (born June 20, 2003), is a white male and was 18 years old at the time of the shooting. He had traveled three and a half hours to the supermarket from his hometown of Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 km) away. Gendron graduated from Susquehanna Valley High School and was previously enrolled at SUNY Broome Community College in Binghamton for an engineering science program. His parents are civil engineers and, according to his neighbors, Gendron previously stated his intention to become one as well. Classmates who were interviewed by The New York Times said that Gendron was quiet, had rarely attended in-person classes, and that he had exhibited a range of idiosyncratic behaviors, including wearing a hazmat suit to class.
The police said that Gendron had been in Buffalo in early March. They also said that he was in Buffalo the day before the shooting and that he had carried out reconnaissance at the Tops supermarket. According to police, he had researched previous hate-motivated attacks and shootings. According to a childhood friend of Gendron's, Gendron came to the friend's house the day before the shooting and left five boxes of ammunition at the house. Supposedly, Gendron told the friend he needed to leave the ammunition because Gendron needed to rearrange his own house, and that Gendron would need to retrieve the ammunition later.
Investigation of previous threat
In June 2021, Gendron had been investigated for threatening other students at his high school by the police in Broome County. A teacher had asked him about his plans after the school year, to which Gendron responded, "I want to murder and commit suicide." He was referred to a hospital for mental health evaluation and counseling but was released after being held for a day and a half.
Gendron told police that he was merely joking; however, Gendron later wrote online that this was actually a well-executed bluff. He was not charged in connection with the incident since, according to investigators, he had not made a specific enough threat to warrant further action. The New York State Police did not seek an order from a state court to remove guns from Gendron's possession. The mental health evaluation was not an involuntary commitment, which would have prohibited him from buying guns under federal law.
Weapons
Gendron cleared the background check by filling in Form 4473, as is typically required under U.S. federal law. During the purchase of the Bushmaster XM-15 AR-15–style rifle used in the shooting, the seller said that Gendron passed the background check and that the seller did not remember Gendron. Gendron cleared another check while purchasing a shotgun at a store in the neighboring town of Great Bend, Pennsylvania, located 8.7 miles (14.0 km) away from his Conklin house, saying that he would use it for target practice; this shotgun was later recovered by police from Gendron's automobile. Since New York prohibits the purchase and/or possession of ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, Gendron traveled to Pennsylvania from his home in New York to purchase a 30-round ammunition magazine. Before the shooting, Gendron wrote that he had purchased a rifle and illegally modified it in order to enable it to hold 30-round magazines. Gendron also wrote that he selected an AR-15-style rifle for its effectiveness, and that he specifically selected the Bushmaster XM-15 for its notoriety.
On one of his rifles, Gendron had reportedly written the word nigger along with references to reparations. Gendron's gun also reportedly was covered with references to white supremacist mass murderers Dylann Roof, Robert Bowers, Brenton Tarrant, and John Earnest, the acronym SYGAOWN (Stop Your Genocide Against Our White Nations), far-right slang "Buck status: broken", the year 2083—a reference to the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik—and a depiction of the Archangel Michael's Cross of the fascist Romanian Iron Guard. A law enforcement source told The Daily Beast that Gendron had also written on his rifle the names of one or more victims of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack. On the weapons in his car which had not been used during the shooting, he reportedly had written "White Lives Matter" and, according to CNN, "what appears to be the name of a victim of a crime committed by a black suspect."
Manifesto
Prior to the shooting, Gendron supposedly wrote and released online a 180-page manifesto that primarily references the topic of mass immigration. The manifesto was originally posted on Google Docs on the evening of May 12, two days before the attack, and according to file data, it has not been modified since. Federal law enforcement sources told CNN that they were reviewing the document along with Gendron's 673-page online diary. The manifesto contains biographical information of the author identical to that of Gendron, such as the author sharing Gendron's birth date.
The author describes himself as someone who initially identified as being on the "authoritarian left" before he developed American neo-Nazi, antisemitic, eco-fascist, ethno-nationalist, populist, and white supremacist views. He claims to have adopted these ideological stances after he visited the discussion board /pol/ on 4chan, an imageboard, as well as the website The Daily Stormer beginning in May 2020, on which he saw "infographics, shitposts, and memes" around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The manifesto primarily promotes the white nationalist and far-right "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory of Renaud Camus, which claims that elites are promoting immigration and decreasing white birth rates in an attempt to subject whites to a genocide. The manifesto also says that Jews and societal elites are responsible for transgender inclusivity and non-white immigration, that Black people disproportionately kill white people, and that non-whites will overwhelm and wipe out the white race.
The manifesto's author also expressed support for far-right mass shooters Dylann Roof, Anders Behring Breivik, and Brenton Tarrant. About 28% of the document is plagiarized from other sources, especially Tarrant's manifesto. As much as 57% of the text-based ideological sections were plagiarized in this manner; this was measured by excluding the sections which consisted of Internet meme images, other pictures taken from online, and logistical discussion about the equipment for the attack.
The planning for the attack commenced in January of 2022. Buffalo was targeted because it was the city closest to the author's home that had the most Black residents. He then proceeded to select the ZIP code area within Buffalo with the highest percentage of Black residents. The manifesto includes extensive details about preparations for the supermarket attack itself and a plan to, following the initial shooting, travel to a majority-Black neighborhood in Buffalo to conduct further attacks. It characterizes the attack as having been "intended to terrorize all nonwhite, non-Christian people and get them to leave the country."
Activity on chat logs
Gendron is also reported to have had an account on the chat platform Discord, with the same username as the Twitch user who livestreamed the attack. Thousands of chat logs were retrieved from the account's postings in a private chatroom, which were written in the form of an online diary and range from November of 2021 to 13 May 2022. The logs include photos of Gendron, and the author claimed to be Gendron. Police said that they believed the messages are genuine. The chat logs reference a speeding ticket that is consistent with one received by Gendron. The logs also include to-do list items seemingly indicating that the author was preparing for the attack. The chat logs indicated that the attack was originally planned to occur on March 15 so that the author could commemorate the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings. However, the attack was delayed due to the author developing a case of COVID-19. The logs contained indications from as early as November 2021 that the author planned to livestream a mass shooting targeting Black people. He claimed authorship of a post on 4chan from 9 November 2021, that said, "a brenton tarrant event [sic] will happen again soon."
The online diary also had sketches of the layout of the inside of the Tops supermarket. The diary mentions visits to the supermarket on March 8. During these visits, the author notes being challenged by the security guard, which the author described a close call. He also noted the numbers of Black people and White people in the supermarket during his visits. The author considered attacking various locations, including a Walmart in Rochester, New York, and institutions with predominantly Black attendees such as churches, malls, and elementary schools. He also considered attacking synagogues but decided against it because March 15 would not fall on a Saturday (the Jewish sabbath), thus, synagogues were not likely to have many attendees at the author's desired time to attack. He wrote that he used data available through Google to determine when the busiest times in the supermarket would be.
The author of the online diary described himself as being socially isolated. He said, "I would like to say I had quite a normal childhood (<18) but that is not the case." He also said, "It's not that I actually dislike other people, it's just that they make me feel so uncomfortable I've probably spent actual years of my life just being online. And to be honest I regret it. I didn't go to friend's houses often or go to any parties or whatever. Every day after school I would just go home and play games and watch YouTube, mostly by my self [sic]." In another entry, he added, "If I could go back maybe I'd tell myself to get the fuck off 4chan ... and get an actual life." At one point in the chat logs, the author describes killing and mutilating a cat. The chat logs include occasional suicidal ideation and self-doubt from the author.
In a post from December 9, 2021, the author describes staying in the emergency room of a hospital for 20 hours on May 28, 2021, as a result of stating his intention to commit murder–suicide in an online assignment for his economics class. He described the hospital stay as a very negative experience from which he gained encouragement to take action. In other entries, he posted photos of modifications he made to his rifle so that it could be equipped with 30-round magazines, while acknowledging that this was illegal in New York. He also posted details about obtaining other equipment for a planned attack, such as body armor and a helmet.
About 30 minutes before the shooting began, invitations to the chatroom that hosted the online diary logs were sent to a small group of other Discord users. After that point, at least fifteen other users joined the chatroom and would have been able to view the chat logs. According to a Discord spokesperson, they found no indication that any other users were aware of the diary before that time. The logs' author also sent others online messages containing links to the Twitch livestream which he would later use to show the attack. According to the message attached to the invite, Discord users could also view a livestream through the Discord chatroom, as opposed to the Twitch livestream. The chatroom was disabled when Discord learned about its alleged relationship to the shooting.
Other than the online diary, chat logs related to the attack were also retrieved from a second chatroom on Discord where members primarily discussed weapons as a dedicated topic. There, the user reported to have been Gendron sought advice regarding equipment such as body armor. Prior to the shooting, the livestream footage quickly leaked to multiple other social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit.
Legal proceedings
Criminal charges
Gendron was arraigned in Buffalo City Court, a New York State Court. Represented by a public defender, Gendron entered a not guilty plea to multiple charges of first-degree murder. A felony hearing was scheduled to begin on May 19 in front of a grand jury. He was held without bail under suicide watch. On the same day, the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, confirmed that the United States Department of Justice was investigating the shooting as a hate crime and as an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.
On May 19, it was announced that Gendron was indicted on the charge of first-degree murder by a grand jury in a decision that had been handed up the day prior. Gendron briefly appeared in court on May 19. On June 1, a grand jury issued a 25-count indictment against Gendron. The jury charged him with "one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate", as well as "10 counts of first-degree murder as a hate crime, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three counts of attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon", according to The Washington Post. Gendron was arraigned in Erie County Court on June 2, 2022, and pled not guilty to all 25 charges.
On June 3, 2022, a filing made on behalf of one of the survivors from the attack sought a court order for the preservation of a number of items in the possession of Gendron's parents. The filing sought to preserve, among other things, any of his available cellphones, computers (and web browsing history), travel and school records, video game consoles, and receipts for firearms and ammunition. Additionally, the filing requested that his parents be made to provide pretrial depositions in court by July 29.
On June 15, Gendron was charged with 26 counts of federal hate crimes and also additional gun charges. Should he be convicted of any of the more serious federal hate crimes, he faces the possibility of the death penalty. If the death penalty is applied, it would only be carried out by the federal government.
State
On November 17, Gendron agreed to plead guilty to all state charges. On November 28, he pled guilty to fifteen state-level counts: ten counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder motivated by hate, criminal weapons possession, and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was denied youthful offender status and received 11 life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 90 years. (Currently, there is no capital punishment in New York.) He was later transferred to Livingston County Jail in Geneseo, New York.
Federal
As of the date of his state sentencing[update], Gendron was still facing federal charges. In December 2022, Gendron's lawyer indicated that he would be willing to plead guilty to the federal charges to avoid the death penalty. On January 12, 2024, the Department of Justice said that it would seek the death penalty, making this the first death penalty case under Garland, who had in the past expressed his opposition to capital punishment. In explaining their reasons to seek the death penalty, the prosecutors stated that Gendron's decision to select the supermarket showed he planned to “maximize the number of Black victims”, his beliefs in white supremacy, and the substantial planning and premeditation behind the crime, were among the factors they considered in seeking capital punishment for Gendron. Gendron's trial is set to begin on September 8, 2025.
Reactions
National
President Joe Biden offered his prayers for the victims and their families; he called the shooting a racially motivated hate crime, an act of domestic terrorism, and went on to call white supremacy a "poison ... running through our body politic". The Erie County Sheriff's Office tweeted their condolences to all of the victims and their families and offered resources and personnel to assist the officers.
Twitch response
Twitch confirmed that its service was used to broadcast the shooting. It said that the account that posted the livestream had been indefinitely suspended and that any attempts to re-stream the footage would be monitored and prohibited. Gendron's livestream was removed less than two minutes after the violence started according to a spokesperson; it was unclear if he was still actively firing at the time. The livestream was recorded by at least one individual and posted to the site Streamable, where it had acquired more than 3 million views by May 15. The spread of the video on other sites has led to discussions about social media sites' liability, responses to similar content, and free speech on the sites.
Fox News as a potential inspiration
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American publications widely condemned the conspiracy theories—including the notion of a "white genocide" supposedly occurring in the U.S.—advocated by the assailant. The Daily Beast journalist Andy Craig has argued that beliefs "centered around the claim that there is a deliberate plot to commit to genocide against white Americans—using non-white immigration as its supposed primary means" created a "noxious brew of ideas" that animated the killer, recommending that all supporters of freedom of speech as an ideal condemn such extremist thinking. Gendron's claim of a "Great Replacement" has drawn increased scrutiny of Republican political and media figures who have made statements embracing or echoing the conspiracy, most prominently Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson. National Review, a conservative news magazine, criticized this scrutiny of Carlson, with columnist Dan McLaughlin saying: "He never mentioned Tucker Carlson, and [he] expressed his hatred for Fox News [in the manifesto]." In response, Carlson said that the suspect's manifesto was "not recognizably left-wing or right-wing; it's not really political at all. The document is crazy." However, Kate Maltby, writing for The Jewish Chronicle, drew attention to language Gendron used in his reported manifesto attacking diversity, which is similar to wording Carlson employed in one of his broadcasts. House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik, the third highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, also had attention drawn to her hardline views in the conspiracy theory that the Democratic Party is trying to replace or overwhelm Republican voters with immigrants, using an open-door immigration policy in order to win elections.
Footage from the Buffalo shooting was reportedly included on a violence-glorifying website created by the 2022 Colorado Springs shooting's suspect.
Legislative
The proposed Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which would have established domestic terrorism offices in the DOJ and FBI focused on neo-Nazis and white supremacy, passed the House on May 18 but failed in the Senate on May 26. Republicans argued that the measure duplicated already existing efforts by American law enforcement while also risking targeting individuals unfairly as political extremists. Democrats noted the tough polarization in Congress while arguing that the Republicans failed to compromise on pragmatic changes to fight gun deaths.
On June 7, 2022, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearings to examine "the 'Metastasizing' Domestic Terrorism Threat After the Buffalo Attack." The Committee heard testimony from the son of rampage victim Ruth Whitfield, former commissioner of the Buffalo Fire Department Garnell Whitfield, Jr., who asked the committee, "to imagine the faces of your mothers as you look at the face of my mother, Mrs. Ruth Whitfield… and ask yourself… is there nothing we can do? Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?".
In response to this attack, as well as the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas that occurred 10 days afterwards, the New York State Legislature passed laws banning semi-automatic sales to most people under 21 as well as certain types of body armor.
Local
New York Governor Kathy Hochul traveled to Buffalo to assist with the response. Governor Hochul said "we'll be aggressive in our pursuit of anyone who subscribes to the ideals professed by other white supremacists and how there's a feeding frenzy on social media platforms where hate festers more hate." Hochul called for stronger federal gun violence prevention legislation, saying "What has made this so lethal, and so devastating for this community, was the high-capacity magazine that would have had to have been purchased elsewhere, that's not legal in the state of New York."
The attorney for one of the victims' families, Benjamin Crump, has argued that public policy changes need to take place to fight political extremist activism as a result of the shooting. He remarked, "We have to direct our attention to these internet sites that inspire these young people that are radicalizing them to be hate-mongers, to be people who hate people because the color of their skin."
The New York State Education Department announced that it was cancelling the U.S. Government and History Regents Exam because it contained a question that the department determined might be upsetting to students in the aftermath of the shooting. The state did not specify what the question said or why it may have been objectionable. Canisius College, a local university that Aaron Salter Jr. had previously attended, posthumously awarded him a bachelor's degree during their 2022 graduation ceremony.
International
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attack. Buffalo is on the Canadian border and is adjacent to Fort Erie, Ontario. Jim Diodati, the mayor of Niagara Falls, Ontario, called Buffalo mayor Byron Brown to express his solidarity with Buffalo. Flags in Niagara Falls were lowered at half-mast in honor of the victims.
Legacy
The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is developing an intentional and authentic record of the 2022 Buffalo shooting. This collection work will include oral history recordings and the preservation of mementos that will create a repository of collective memory.
A coalition to document the tragedy includes Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, The Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo State University, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Canisius University, Darwin D. Martin House, Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor, The Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department, Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, victims’ family members, survivors, and broader community members. The mission is to create a historical record that will demonstrate to current and future generations a true account of the tragedy that took the lives of ten innocent people, wounded three others, and forever changed the history of our city.
See also
- 2019 El Paso shooting, a similar attack influenced by the Christchurch mosque shootings which targeted Hispanic and Latinos
- 2021 Boulder shooting, a similar attack which targeted a grocery store
- 2023 Jacksonville shooting, another attack which targeted African Americans
- Christchurch mosque shootings
- Domestic terrorism in the United States
- List of mass shootings in the United States in 2022
- Racism against African Americans
- Right-wing terrorism
- Terrorism in the United States
- Timeline of terrorist attacks in the United States
- United States racial unrest (2020–present)
References
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