New audio provides more details regarding the tragic mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
Police responded to reports of shots fired in record time — amazingly, the suspect was in custody just six minutes after officers arrived on the scene. However, quick and heroic actions could not prevent the shooter from killing 10 and leaving three more wounded.
The incident occurred at a Tops grocery store located on Jefferson Ave. in South Buffalo. Spectrum News 1 reported an official saying the event was “horrifying” and “pure evil.”
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia reportedly described the incident as a “racially motivated hate crime.”
Newly released radio communications, posted on Broadcastify.com, between officers at the scene show officers encountering a situation worse than they imagined.
When officers approach the store, they report the shooting is still in process.
An officer then radios, “We have bodies down here!”
Another officer requests the dispatcher send “as many cars as you possibly can.”
Officers quickly determined there was likely one shooter. A firefighter first-responder reported: “there might be an individual with body armor.”
The New York Post reports that moments later, police “cornered” the shooter, Payton Gendron, 18.
The following transmission notes, “[We] have him.”
The Post reports that Gendron drove more than 200 miles from his home near Binghamton to carry out the attack.
Special FBI Agent Stephen Belongia noted the bureau was investigating the incident as “a hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism.”
Some have reported that white letters on the black barrel of the assault weapon allegedly used by Gendron appear to spell the name Virginia Sorenson.
One Twitter user noted that the “Buffalo shooter wrote the names of Waukesha victims on his barrel guard.”
Resist the Mainstream noted that “Sorenson was a 79-year-old White woman killed during a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisc., last year when a Black man plowed into a crowd, killing six.”
Hours after Gendron’s arrest, investigators discovered a 180-page “manifesto,” in which Gendron describes himself as a “white supremacist” and “anti-Semite.”
A Post report notes that Gendron commended Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who live-streamed his shooting in a mosque in New Zealand in 2019, leaving 51 dead.
A previous report on RTM notes that Gendron also live-streamed Saturday’s shooting on Twitch.
The “manifesto” also notes that Gendron started planning the attack in January and chose the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo because “it has the highest black population percentage.”
At a press conference, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said:
“I want to thank law enforcement at every level – federal, state, Buffalo police, Erie County Sheriff’s Department for their tremendous response. Buffalo police responded in less than two minutes after this incident began, and I want to say a special word of thanks to those Buffalo police officers because if not for their swift response and courageous actions, more lives probably would have been lost yesterday.”
During Sunday’s news conference, Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the police saying:
“I am absolutely in awe of what the Buffalo Police Department did yesterday. They are so heroic when the time comes, and they deserve our respect, and I want to give my gratitude to them.”
Hochul also took the opportunity to stump for greater clampdowns on free speech, urging social media companies to step up their enforcement efforts against extremist content.
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