Buffalo shooting – live: Mitch McConnell says Payton Gendron was ‘deranged’ and calls racism ‘abhorrent’

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Buffalo mass shooting: 10 reported dead as police investigate manifesto

Ten people are dead and a suspect is in custody after a gunman with a rifle and body armour opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on 14 May, believed to be one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history, and the deadliest mass shooting in the US in 2022.

The shooting took place at Tops Friendly Market in the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue in the state’s second-largest city, in a predominantly Black neighbourhood that authorities believe the suspect had specifically targeted. Thirteen people in total were shot. Among the victims, 11 were Black.

Close-up shots from a video of Saturday’s attack, which police say was filmed by the gunman himself, show the N-word and the number 14 — a known white supremacist code — written on the barrel of the gun in white paint.

A “manifesto” has been found online, connected to the 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron, that references racist and white nationalist tropes and far-right conspiracy theories.

President Joe Biden arrived in Buffalo on Tuesday to “grieve” with the community and delivered remarks where he called Saturday’s attack “straightforward terrorism”.

“Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word,” he said during a speech at a Buffalo community centre.

Key Points

• Biden: ‘White supremacy will not have the last word’
• Biden and first lady arrive in Buffalo to comfort mourning families
• Suspect gunman planned killing ‘more Black people’, authorities say
• What we know so far about the Buffalo mass shooting
• Tributes honour Black community leaders killed in massacre

[17 May 2022 18:26 · Josh Marcus]

Schumer: Fox News must cease ‘reckless amplification’ of replacement theory

In a damning letter sent by Chuck Schumer and addressed to the executives of Fox News, the Senate Majority Leader called out the network to “immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘great replacement’ theory” on their broadcasts.

The letter, first published by The New York Times, begins by addressing “Rupert Murduch et al” and asks that the executives do a serious audit of the content being aired on their network, particularly as it relates to “this pernicious theory , which has no basis in fact” and “has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors”.

The letter goes onto cite specific instances where the people behind some of the most violent and hateful mass shootings in recent US history have cited this theory, including the white man who killed 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 and “who blamed Jews for allowing immigrant ‘ invaders’ into the United States” and the 2019 mass shooting where a man who had expressed anger towards Hispanics in Texas went into an El Paso Walmart and killed 23 people.

And just days ago in Buffalo, a white man killed 10 people in a supermarket on the city’s predominantly Black east side. In a manifesto posted online, the individual responsible for this heinous murder wrote that the shoppers there came from a culture that sought to “ethnically replace my own people”

Sen Charles Schumer

Schumer also cited a recent AP poll that found that people who watch Fox News are three times more likely to believe the dangerous rhetoric that “a group of people is trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains”.

The letter was signed by the Democratic lawmaker, with a closing “CC: Tucker Carlson”, who he also discussed higher up in the letter, noting that a New York Times investigation had uncovered that his show alone accounted for a good chunk of the dangerous theory being aired on the network as it was discussed more than 400 times on his weekly Fox programme.

[17 May 2022 17:35 · Johanna Chisholm]

Biden delivers remarks in Buffalo on racist attack

US President Joe Biden addressed the nation following a visit with victims of the Buffalo mass shooting family members on Tuesday, where he and first lady Jill Biden expressed their deepest sympathies for those who are suffering “the pain ... of a loss that’s so profound”.

“[A] days gonna come, it will come when your loved one brings you a smile as you remember him or her, before it brings a tear to your eye,” he said before commemorating each of the 10 people’s lives “cut short in a grocery store”.

“In America, hate will not prevail and white supremacy will not have the last word,” the president said, before directly calling the attack “terrorism ... domestic terrorism”.

“A hate that through the media, politics ... radicalised people” he said, adding that people falsely believed that they’ll “be replaced by the other, by people who don’t look like them” referencing the great replacement theory that was cited by the gunman accused of carrying out Saturday’s deadly attack.

“I call on all Americans to reject the lie and condemn those who spread the lie for power and political gain and profit. That’s what it is,” he said, before saying “white supremacy is a poison”.

Watch live here.

[17 May 2022 17:32 · Johanna Chisholm]

Watch: Bidens arriving in Buffalo to pay tribute to victims

Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at the scene of the Buffalo memorial set up to honour the 10 people who were killed and the three who were injured by an armed gunman on Saturday in what is now the most lethal racist attack since the US president took office.

He’s expected to deliver remarks while visiting the New York city rocked by the violent actions of a white supremacist who targeted Black people with an assault rifle at a supermarket.

The president is expected to directly address gun restrictions and to urge Americans to reject racism and embrace the nation’s diversity, the White House said.

[17 May 2022 17:05 · Johanna Chisholm]

Biden to deliver remarks in Buffalo and condemn mass shooting

US President Joe Biden arrived in Buffalo on Tuesday with First Lady Jill Biden, where the pair walked hand-in-hand to the makeshift memorial just outside the Buffalo, New York supermarket that was the site of the racist attack where 10 people died at the hands of a white supremacist mass shooter.

The president will also be meeting with first reponders, community members and the families of the victims who lost their lives during Saturday’s attack.

Afterwards, he’ll also be delivering remarks at a 1pm ET speech in the New York city, during which he’s expected to label the violent attack as a “despicable act” and to call it out “for what it is: “Terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation”.

Continue reading the full story from The Independent below.