10 dead in mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket: Live updates | CNN (2024)

Thirteen people were shot at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday. Eleven of them were Black and two were White, according to Buffalo Police.

Four of the victims were store employees, including a security guard.

Two people remain hospitalized in stable condition, a spokesman for Erie County Medical Center told CNN Saturday night, and a third person wounded was discharged.

Authorities have announced the names of two of the people killed.

Ruth Whitfield and her husband, Garnell Whitfield Sr.

RuthWhitfield:The mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield Jr. has been identified as one of the victims, according to Mayor Byron Brown. The 86-year-old had just gone to visit her husband in a nursing home and stopped to pick up a few items at the supermarket when she was shot and killed, he told CNN.

Aaron Salter -Brown also identified the supermarket security guard who engaged the suspect during Saturday’s mass shooting as Aaron Salter. Brown said Salter is a former Buffalo Police lieutenant who was well-known and respected around the community. Byron said Salter worked at the Tops Family Market for several years in retirement as a security officer.

Law enforcement personnel are seen at the home ofBuffalosupermarketshootingsuspect Payton Gendron inConklin, New York,on May 15.

Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron was a worker at the local Conklin Reliable Market for about four months and left about three months ago, according to the store’s owner.

The owner of the store says he was very quiet and left on his own terms, giving two weeks’ notice. Gendron worked in the deli at the store and did several jobs within the market.

Neighbors say that they would see Gendron’s mother regularly walking in the neighborhood. One neighbor said the mother was a nice woman, and they “never would have thought that in a million years” that Gendron would have racist views. The neighbor added that “it’s pretty shocking.”

Another neighbor says that when you talked to Payton Gendron, “you wouldn’t get more than a word or two” from him.

President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul following Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

“President Biden spoke with New York Governor Kathy Hochul today to offer his condolences and support during this difficult time. President Biden also reached out to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown,” a White House official said.

The official told the pool that Biden was unable to connect with Brown.

The mayor said he was in a church service and missed a call from Biden on Sunday, but added that he spoke with other members of the White House.

Brown said the potential exists that President Biden could come to Buffalo ahead of his Asia trip if his schedule can be worked out.

Tenpeople were killed Saturday at the Tops grocery store in what authorities are investigating as a racially motivated mass shooting by a suspect in tactical gear who was live streaming the attack, law enforcement officials said. Biden addressed the shooting earlier Sunday in remarks and told reporters that he had “not yet” had a chance to speak with victims’ families.

The alleged gunman in the Buffalo mass shooting made very disturbing statements describing his motive and state of mind following his arrest, according to an official familiar with the investigation.

The official told CNN the statements made after the arrest were clear and filled with hate toward the Black community. The alleged shooter made it known he was targeting the Black community during the statements, according to the official.

Investigators have uncovered other information from search warrants and other methods indicating the alleged shooter was “studying” previous hate attacks and shootings.

Investigators previously said they are reviewing a purported manifesto posted online in connection with the mass shooting.

“The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime. It will be prosecuted as a hate crime,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday. “This is someone who has hate in their heart, soul and mind.”

Suspect surveilled the area: The suspected shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, surveilled both the community and the grocery store as part of the planning of his attack, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN.

“It sounds like he was here for maybe several days from reports that I’ve been hearing and that he did surveil this community, was scouting the supermarket, actually talked to some people in the area,” Brown told CNN.

Investigators believe the suspect researched the area and “targeted the busiest place at one of the busiest times,” New York Gov. Hochul also told CNN.

“This was targeted by zip code,” Hochul said. “This was the highest concentration of African-Americans within hours.”

That account matches a line from an apparent manifesto posted online, where an author claiming to be Gendron says, “Zip code 14208 in Buffalo has the highest black percentage that is close enough to where I live.”

Some background:The zip code that includes the store, 14208, is 78% Black, according to the Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey. It is among the top 2% of zip codes nationwide with the highest percentage of Black population and has the highest percentage of Black population of any zip code in upstate New York. In comparison, 13748, the zip code that includes Gendron’s hometown, Conklin, is 89% White and 0.4% Black.

CNN’s Polo Sandoval, Sarah Jorgenson and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

Law enforcement personnel are seen at the home ofBuffalosupermarketshootingsuspect Payton Gendron in Conklin, New York on May 15.

The 18 year-old suspect in the Buffalo mass shooting where 10 people were killed on Saturday made a “generalized threat” while he attended Susquehanna Valley Central High School in June 2021, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday.

State police brought the student in for a mental health evaluation and he was released a day-and-a-half later, according to Gramaglia, who added that the 2021 threat was not racially motivated.

New York State Police investigated a report that a 17-year-old student had made “a threatening statement, a spokesperson told CNN Sunday, adding that the student was taken to a hospital in June 2021 for a mental health evaluation.

The spokesman said state police responded to Susquehanna High School in Conklin, NY, on June 8, 2021, following the threatening statement.

“The student was taken into custody under NYS Mental Health Law section 9.41 and transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation,” State Police told CNN in an email.

State police were unable to confirm how long the individual was in the hospital or the findings of the evaluation. They also refused to name the 17-year-old.

Earlier Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also mentioned the investigation into a threat the suspect made in high school.

“Apparently he was investigated when he was a high school student, brought to the attention of the authorities. He had a medical evaluation based on something he had written in school and so we’re going to find out what happened in the aftermath,” she said.

Police walk outside the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, May 15.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that warrants are being obtained for the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting suspect’s home, vehicle, social media platforms, computer, telephone, and any other digital technologies.

At this time the investigation shows that 18-year-old Payton Gendron acted on his own in the shooting, Gramaglia said.

The police commissioner said Gendron was in Buffalo on Friday and that authorities have determined some locations he visited ahead of the shooting. He did some reconnaissance at Tops Friendly Markets store.

The first call of the incident at the supermarket occurred at 2:30 p.m., ET, on Saturday, and that patrol officers arrived a minute later, Gramaglia added.

State police and the FBI are interviewing the suspect’s parents who are cooperating with authorities, he said.

People march to the scene of the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on Sunday, May 15.

All family notifications have occurred after Saturday’s shooting at the Tops Friendly Markets store, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday.

“We had a family reunification center, and we were able to provide all those notifications so that they can begin the grieving process,” Gramaglia said.

Gramaglia cautioned that the investigation would be lengthy.

“There are warrants that have been obtained or warrants that will continue to be obtained both on the state and the federal levels. We’ll be looking at extensive digital platforms, computers, phones, cameras and anything else that comes into play in this investigation. The crime scene is still being held and it will be held for as long as we need it,” Gramaglia said.

Gramaglia said the FBI is bringing in specialized equipment to help process that scene.

“This is a very significant coordinated collaborative effort with the State Police, the FBI, the sheriff’s department, everybody else that are involved in this process,” he said.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia speaks at a press conference on Saturday, May 14, after a shooting at a supermarket on in Buffalo, New York.

The evidence that police have recovered “makes no mistake” that the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday was a hate crime, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

“This is an absolute racist hate crime, it will prosecuted as a hate crime,” Gramaglia said at a press conference alongside other officials in Buffalo on Sunday.

Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia said the suspect is currently under suicide watch.

“He’s under direct observation from our deputies’ video surveillance … he is in a unit that is separated from all other incarcerated individuals,” Garcia said.“The bravery by the Buffalo Police officers to engage an individual with a vest, an assault rifle and handguns. I can just not say enough about their actions.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Washington on Wednesday, May 11.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer has railed against what he called the “scourge of gun violence” in the United States in remarks to worshipers in Buffalo following the mass shooting Saturday which killed at least 10 people who were visiting a supermarket, which is located in the heart of the city’s Black community.

Authorities are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

Speaking virtually to the congregation at the True Bethel Baptist Church in Erie County on Sunday, Schumer described the deaths as part of an “ugly pattern” that “dates back to the earliest days of this nation”.

“Racism unfortunately always has been and unfortunately even more still is the poison of America,” Schumer said. “The original sin of slavery — the decades of racial terror, discrimination, separate but equal, white supremacy, bigotry — continue to exert a poisonous influence in our society, we still have to reckon with unspeakable acts of racial violence, like what happened on Jefferson Avenue.”

“This isn’t about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time — I heard some commentators say that, that really got me very angry,” Sen. Schumer continued. “The only wrong time to be at a supermarket in the minds of these evil people is when it’s closed.”

The Senate majority leader noted that while the onus must be on healing, so, too, must communities also turn their attention to the changes that can only be wrought on the government level to prevent similar kinds of violence from happening again.

“We must tackle the scourge of gun violence and finally ban the weapons of war from our streets,” he said. “We must address the disturbing reality that the internet and social media allow purveyors of evil to spread their wicked words to poison the minds of others.”

Schumer said he’d spoken with the deputy director at the FBI who had assured him that law enforcement would be using “every investigative tool to track down and identify racial hatred and hate crimes that have motivated this reprehensible crime.”

Drawing on their faith, Schumer also encouraged the congregation to lean on one another to process the events of the prior day as a community. Citing the late Martin Luther King Jr., he reminded worshipers that only love can drive out hate.

“There must be love,” he said. “Love for your neighbors, love for your community.”

President Joe Biden condemned the tragic mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, expressing condolences for the victims and families as he decried the “hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.”

“A lone gunman armed with weapons of war and hate-filled soul, shot and killed 10 innocent people in cold blood at a grocery store on Saturday afternoon,” Biden said as he began his speech at theNational Peace Officers Memorial Service at the US Capitol, marking his first extensive on-camera remarks since the tragic shooting.

“Jill and I, like all of you, pray for the victims and their families and a devastated community,” he said, adding that he has been receiving updates from his team and the administration is in “close contact” with officials on the matter.

Ten people were killed Saturday at the Tops grocery store in what authorities are investigating as a racially motivated mass shooting by a suspect in tactical gear who was livestreaming the attack, law enforcement officials said during a Saturday news conference.

Biden told reporters earlier Sunday he had “not yet” spoken with victims’ families and was unsure if he would be able to get to Buffalo this week ahead of his planned trip to Asia next weekend. He said he was “trying to work out the schedule.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the US-ASEAN Summit at the State Department in Washington on Friday, May 13.

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement Sunday on the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, decrying an “epidemic of hate across our country” following the actions of an 18-year-old man in a racist shooting.

“Racially-motivated hate crimes or acts of violent extremism are harms against all of us, and we must do everything we can to ensure that our communities are safe from such acts,” she added.

Harris expressed condolences and prayers for the families of victims.

The suspect, Payton S. Gendron, allegedly wrote a White supremacist manifesto ahead of the shooting.

Investigators are reviewing a180-page purported manifestothat was posted online in connection with the shooting, two federal law enforcement sources told CNN.

The manifesto, independently obtained by CNN shortly after the attack and before authorities released the suspect’s name, is allegedly written by a person claiming to be Payton Gendron confessing to the attack.

It details perceptions of the dwindling size of the White population and claims of ethnic and cultural replacement of Whites, and the author describes himself as a fascist, a White supremacist and an anti-Semite.

CNN’s Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, on May 15.

President Joe Biden said he was unsure whether he would visit Buffalo, New York, before he leaves for his trip abroad to Asia later this week.

“We’re going to work that out now,” Biden said while climbing the steps of Air Force One in Wilmington, Delaware, ahead of his flight back to DC on Sunday.

As his audio was partially overshadowed by plane noise, he repeated that he was “trying to work out the schedule.”

“I don’t know that I’m going to be able to go to Buffalo,” he said, and added he was trying to figure it out.

He later told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that he had “not yet” spoken with the families of the 10 people who were killed.

CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

People pay their respects outside the scene of a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Sunday, May 15.

Buffalo mass shooting suspect Payton Gendron surveilled both the community and the grocery store as part of the planning of his attack, Mayor Byron Brown told CNN.

“It sounds like he was here for maybe several days from reports that I’ve been hearing and that he did surveil this community, was scouting the supermarket, actually talked to some people in the area,” Brown told CNN.

Investigators believe the suspect researched the area and “targeted the busiest place at one of the busiest times,” Gov. Hochul also told CNN.

“This was targeted by zip code,” Hochul said. “This was the highest concentration of African-Americans within hours.”

That account matches a line from an apparent manifesto posted online, where an author claiming to be Gendron says, “Zip code 14208 in Buffalo has the highest black percentage that is close enough to where I live.”

Some background: The zip code that includes the store, 14208, is 78% Black, according to the Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey. It is among the top 2% of zip codes nationwide with the highest percentage of Black population and has the highest percentage of Black population of any zip code in upstate New York. In comparison, 13748, the zip code that includes Gendron’s hometown, Conklin, is 89% White and 0.4% Black.

CNN’s Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

Tops supermarket is located in the heart of Buffalo's Black community where a mass shooting took place on Saturday, May 14.

The suspect in the Buffalo mass shooting was being monitored by “medical authorities” ahead of Saturday’s attack where 10 people were killed, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

Asked if the suspect was on law enforcement’s radar, Hochul said, “Just as a high school student with respect to something he wrote in high school and was under surveillance at the time with medical authorities.”

“But I’m going to be investigating that very question. I want to know what people knew, and when they knew it, and calling upon our law enforcement as well as our social media platforms,” she added.

On Saturday, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the suspect drove to the Buffalo Tops market heavily armed, wearing tactical gear, and had a camera where he was livestreaming what he was doing.

Investigators are reviewing a purported manifesto posted online in connection with the mass shooting, two federal law enforcement officials told CNN.

People gather outside the supermarket where several people were shot on Saturday, May 14, in Buffalo, New York.

Shoppers in and around a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, describe hiding behind cars, calling out for helpas a gunman killed 10 people and wounded three othersin a mass shooting authorities believe was racially motivated.

Grady Lewis said he was outside the supermarket when he heard seven or eight gunshots, and described seeing a White man “fully prepared, ready to go,” dressed in tactical gear spraying gunfire at the entry of the store, which is located in the heart of the city’s Black community.

Law enforcement arrived within two minutes after the shooting began, Lewis toldCNN affiliate WKBW. He “heard at least 20 or so shots” before the suspect exited the store.

“He came out, he put the gun to his head, to his chin. Then he dropped it and took off his bulletproof vest, then got on his hands and knees and put his hands behind his back,” Lewis said, describing the moments the suspect was arrested by police. “I thought they were going to shoot him but they didn’t shoot him.”

“I still don’t even believe it happened … that a person would go into a supermarket full of people,” he said. “It was horrible, it was really horrible.”

One woman told WKBW she received a distressing phone call from her “scared, hysterical” 19-year-old granddaughter who was at the supermarket and heard gunshots. The woman raced to the scene and found her granddaughter outside the store.

“I can’t even explain it, how grateful I am to God that she’s ok because she could have been one of the other people,” she told WKBW.

Read the full report here.

Police secure the scene of a shooting at Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 15.

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old man who allegedly shot andkilled 10 peopleat a Buffalo supermarket Saturday afternoon, was motivated by hate, authorities said. He was charged with first degree murder Saturday, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn said in anews release, and has pleaded not guilty.

Here’s what we know about the shooting suspect:

Investigators were reviewing a 180-page purported manifesto that was posted online in connection with the shooting probe, two federal law enforcement sources told CNN on Saturday.

The manifesto, independently obtained by CNN shortly after the attack and before authorities released the suspect’s name, is allegedly written by a person claiming to be Payton Gendron confessing to the attack.

The manifesto’s author says he bought ammo for some time but didn’t get serious about planning the attack until January. The author also goes on about his perceptions of the dwindling size of the White population and claims of ethnic and cultural replacement of Whites.

A portion of the document is written in question-and-answer form.

The manifesto’s author attributes the internet for most of his beliefs and describes himself as a fascist, a White supremacist and an anti-Semite.

Authorities say when the suspect arrived at the store around 2:30 p.m., he was heavily armed, wearing tactical gear, a helmet and had a camera that was livestreaming his actions.

Payton Gendron talks with his attorney during his arraignment in Buffalo City Court, on Saturday, May 14.

The suspect used an assault weapon, Flynn said during the news conference.

The popular livestreaming platform Twitch confirmed Saturday that the shooting suspect used its platform to stream a live broadcast during the attack.

Gendron was arraigned Saturday evening before Buffalo City Court Chief Judge Craig Hannah on one count of first-degree murder, the district attorney’s news release said.

He pleaded not guilty, Hannah told CNN. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, the release said.

Gendron is set to return to court on the morning of May 19 for a felony hearing, the release said. He will remain in custody without bail, it added.

CNN’s Sharif Paget, Sabrina Shulman and Brian Stelter contributed to this report.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks with CNN on Sunday.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the gun used in the Buffalo mass shooting where 10 people were killed on Saturday was purchased legally in New York state.

The weapon used was an AR-15 and it’s believed that the high-capacity magazine used was purchased outside of New York, she told CNN.

Hochul also called for stronger controls on social media and gun control. She said the suspected gunman’s manifesto advocating hate speech and how it spread online was “fundamentally disturbing.”

She called on the CEOs of all the social media platforms to examine their policies.

She said she wants them “to look me in the eye and tell me that everything is being done that they can to make sure that this information is not spread. They have to be able to identify when information like this, the second it hits the platform, it needs to be taken down. Because this is spreading like wildfire.”

“These theories that result in the radicalization of a young person sitting in their house is deeply scary and it’s something that has to be dealt with,” she added.

Police secure the area around Tops supermarket after the shooting on May 14, in Buffalo, New York.

Ten people were killed in a racially motivated mass shooting at asupermarket in Buffaloon Saturday. The suspect, Payton S. Gendron, an 18-year-old White man, wascharged with first-degree murder, prosecutors said. He pleaded not guilty in court Saturday night, Buffalo City Court Chief Judge Craig Hannah told CNN.

Here’s what we know about how the mass shooting unfolded.

At around 2:30 p.m., authorities allege the suspect — who hails from the town of Conklin, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Buffalo in Western New York — drove to Tops Friendly Markets near the areas of Masten Park and Kingsley, which are predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Wearing tactical gear and armed with “an assault weapon,” the suspect allegedly shot and killed three people in the parking lot and wounded a fourth, according to a statement from Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn.

The suspect then entered the store and exchanged gunfire with an armed security guard, who was a retired member of the Buffalo Police Department, the statement said.

Because the suspect wore heavy tactical gear, however, the guard’s bullets did not have any effect, Gramaglia said Saturday.

“He was very heavily armed,” the police commissioner said. “He had tactical gear, he had a tactical helmet on, he had a camera that he was livestreaming what he was doing.”

Inside the store, nine people were shot before the suspect was apprehended by police, with the guard and six others dying from their wounds, according to the district attorney’s statement.

In a statement sent to CNN, livestreaming service Twitch confirmed the shooting was streamed and said the user “has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”

CNN obtained a portion of the livestream thatshowed the suspectarriving at the supermarket in his vehicle and is not airing the video.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown speaks with CNN on Sunday, May 15.

The Mayor of Buffalo, New York, Byron Brown called for “sensible gun control” following the deadly mass shooting Saturday at a supermarket in his town.

“The message to this country is these mass shootings have to end,” he told CNN. “There has to be sensible gun control, and we cannot have another incident like this in America where lawmakers in Washington fail to act.”

Brown also went on to say that social media platforms needed to regulate hate speech online.

Ruth Whitfield, the mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, has been identified as one of 10 people killed during Saturday’s mass supermarket shooting, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown tells CNN.

Brown said that Ruth Whitfield had just gone to visit her husband in a nursing home and stopped to pick up a few items at the supermarket when she was shot and killed.

Ten people were killed and three others were injured during the shooting, authorities have said.

Flowers and candles lay outside the scene of a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, May 15.

The security guard and retired police officer who was killed inside a Buffalo supermarket Saturday has been identified as Aaron Salter.

Salter was a former Buffalo Police lieutenant who was well-known and respected around the community, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said during an interview on CNN, adding that Salter worked at the Tops Family Market for several years in retirement as a security officer.

Authorities have said the suspect, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, fatally shot 10 people and injured 3 others in what officials are calling a racially-motivated shooting.

Brown, the first Black mayor of Buffalo, said there was no place for this kind of hatred, calling yesterday’s shooting unsettling.

“Thirteen people shot in the supermarket, shopping, working, 10 dead and a shooter with body armor who didn’t live in this community who traveled from three hours away with the express purpose to kill people that he did not know in our community, it’s just unimaginable,” Brown said.

Attorney General Letitia James speaks at a press conference in New York, on May 9.

New York Attorney General Letitia James tells CNN she is in the city to “provide relief and solace to Buffalo” and expects to attend Sunday service at three area houses of worship.

James said she was invited by the respective heads of congregation and that she has full confidence in US Attorney Trini Ross and spoke with her Saturday.

Ross will “prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law” and will bring “the full weight of the United States” on the suspect, James told CNN, adding that she is confident that office will carry out a “full and thorough investigation.”

The attorney general’s office is also looking at a range of issues relating to the shooting, including social media platforms, she said, noting her confidence that the shooter would be charged with hate crimes.

Police officers secure the scene after a shooting at Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, May 14.

The Buffalo mass shooting is the deadliest in the US since the start of 2022, according to data held by theGun Violence Archive.

Ten people were killed in what authorities are investigating as a racially-motivated mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo on Saturday by a suspect wearing tactical gear who was livestreaming the attack, law enforcement officials said during a news conference.

There have been at least 198 mass shootings so far this year in the US, per the Gun Violence Archive, which — like CNN — defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot, not including the shooter. Consistent data about the state of gun violence is difficult to come by, leaving organizations such as the Gun Violence Archive to fill in the gaps.

The largest-scale US mass shooting of 2022 so far took place in Dumas, Arkansas, on March 19, where one person was killed and at least 27 injured. That was the most people wounded in a mass shooting event in the US since ashooter in 2019 targeted shopping centersin Odessa and Midland, Texas, just weeks after amassacre at a Walmartin the same state, according to the Gun Violence Archive.