Buffalo supermarket shooting was a hate crime, officials say

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At least 10 people are dead and another three wounded after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that authorities said was a “racially motivated hate crime.”

Buffalo supermarket shooting

The suspect entered a Tops supermarket shortly after 2:30 p.m. while wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet and fired a rifle, according to authorities.

An 18-year-old white, male suspect is in custody, police said. Authorities say the shooter live-streamed the attack on social media.

Among the 13 victims shot, 11 were African American and two were white, authorities said.

Four of the shooting victims were store employees, while the rest were customers, authorities said. A Buffalo police officer working security was among those killed, according to a law enforcement official.

“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said at a news conference. “Straight up racially motivated, hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the city of good neighbors, as the mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict evil upon us.”

Racially motivated

Stephen Belongia, the FBI’s special agent in charge of the Buffalo area, said the case would be investigated as a hate crime and a tragedy of “racially motivated violent extremism.”

Senior law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Payton Gendron.

The suspect reportedly had the N-word written or etched on one of the weapons, law enforcement sources said.

Gendron is facing first-degree murder charges in New York state court and could also face federal charges, including hate crimes, officials said.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the suspect “is not from this area and is from hours away and drove to Buffalo” to commit the crime .