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image source, Erie Co DA
Payton Gendron, 18 years old.
The alleged gunman responsible for killing 10 people last May at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, has been charged with domestic terrorism in a US court.
Prosecutors allege that Payton Gendron18, who previously pleaded not guilty, was motivated by the racial hate.
The suspect, a self-described white supremacist, is accused of shooting 13 people during the massacre, almost all of them black.
He will also face 10 separate murder charges.
The charge of domestic terrorism was brought against the young man killing “because of the perceived race and/or color” of his victims.
In addition, the indictment includes multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, as well as weapons possession charges, the AFP news agency reported.
image source, Getty Images
The attack has shocked the local community.
10 deceased
Ten people were killed and three wounded in the May 14 shooting, when Gendron allegedly drove more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) to a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York’s second-largest city.
After the attack, which occurred in the supermarket Tops Friendly MarketMayor Byron Brown said the suspect came to town with the specific intent of taking “as many black lives as possible.”
The gunman was dressed in military clothing and broadcast the shooting live by social networks.
In a 180-page document apparently written by the alleged shooter, made public after the incident, the man describes himself as a fascist and white supremacist.
A security guard fired several shots at the attacker, but police said he was protected by a bulletproof vest. The gunman is accused of killing the guard before continuing.
All 10 people who died were black.
Among the dead, who ranged in age from 32 to 86, were a man buying cupcakes for his son’s birthday and a woman who had gone shopping after visiting her husband in a nursing home.
image source, Archyde.com
Social media research
Separately, the New York State Attorney is investigating whether social media companies have some responsibility by allowing the attack to be broadcast, promoted, or planned on their platforms.
“The fact that one person could post detailed plans to commit such an act of hate without consequence, and then broadcast it for the world to see is chilling and unfathomable,” the attorney general said. Letitia James.
Twitchthe website where the shooting was reported, said the video was removed less than two minutes after the violence began, but not before it was duplicated and shared on other websites.
Ten days after what happened in New York, another 18-year-old, Salvador Ramos, shot dead 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas, in what is the second worst massacre in a US school. USA
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