As Buffalo, New York, mourns the victims of a mass shooting at a supermarket Saturday that left 10 dead and three wounded, details are emerging about the shooter’s movements before the attack and how the devastating racist attack unfolded.
The 18-year-old shooter, who is a self-confessed white supremacist, shot 11 Black and two white victims in a “racially motivated hate crime” authorities said. It plunged the mostly Black Buffalo East Side neighborhood into grief and shock.
But the plotting of the attack happened many miles away, had likely been in development for months and even apparently involved a reconnaissance of the targeted area.
The shooter is believed to have traveled about 200 miles (320km ) from his home of Conklin, New York, to Buffalo but signs of trouble had surrounded him for some time. One year ago, he was the subject of a law enforcement investigation, according to The Buffalo News.
High school authorities in Broome county, New York called the police in June 2021, claiming that he had “threatened violence in comments made to fellow students”.
“A school official reported that this very troubled young man had made statements indicating that he wanted to do a shooting, either at a graduation ceremony, or sometime after,” the newspaper reported, citing a government source. The state police were dispatched to investigate and he was referred for counseling and a mental health assessment.
Officials have said that the shooter purchased his gun legally in New York. He did not purchase the high-capacity magazine in this state, they said.
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