Washington: A teenage white supremacist who raged that people of colour are replacing whites in America in a 180-page “manifesto”, zeroed in a minority-frequented store in Buffalo, New York and shot and killed 10 people and injured three more - almost all of them Black.
Payton Gendron, 18, surrendered after the carnage, which he lived-streamed on a social media platform, and was charged with first-degree murder in what law enforcement officials described as a racially motivated hate crime. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail.
There appeared to have been plenty of red flags about Payton’s extremist views and his intent to conduct mass shooting. Aside from the racist opinion he expressed in the manifesto, authorities in the school where he studied told the local media in Buffalo that he had threatened violence and shooting in exchanges with fellow students and had been referred for mental health evaluation and counseling.
On his way to conduct the massacre at a place that he chose by looking up the zip code with a heavy black population, he began a live stream that showed him wearing military-style tactical gear with helmet. On the barrel of his rifle, the “N-word” is spelled out in white paint, with the number 14.
The number 14 is said to refer to a 14-word statement that is popular with white supremacists, and reads, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white people”. The statement is attributed to the late David Lane, an activist with a white supremacist terror group known as The Order.
