The young man responsible for the tragic killing of 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store had hateful messages engraved on the gun he used in the attack.
On a warm spring day, Payton Gendron drove over three hours from his hometown of Conklin in New York State to the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo near Niagara Falls. He was dressed in combat gear and wore a helmet, carrying a semi-automatic weapon with the number “14” engraved on it. This number is used in supremacist circles as a reference to the fourteen-word maxim “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
Reports from Buffalo News revealed that the 18-year-old began shooting near the parking lot, killing three people before entering the store and live-streaming the mass shooting on Twitch. He then proceeded to shoot more people inside the store. The victims included six store employees, and a total of eleven victims were Black. Payton Gendron then exited the store but was arrested by the police without any shots being fired by the officers.
The suspect has been charged with murder and is being held without bail. He has pleaded not guilty and faces life imprisonment as the state has abolished the death penalty. Authorities have ordered a psychiatric examination in light of the shocking racially motivated attack.
It has been revealed that the black Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle used in the attack had racist language engraved on it, including “N****” on the barrel, “Here’s your reparations,” “Dylan Roof,” “John Earnest,” and “SYGAOWN.”
“SYGAOWN” stands for “Stop Your Genocide Against Our White Nations.” Dylan Roof was responsible for killing 9 black worshipers at a South Carolina Church, while John Earnest killed one woman and injured 3 others in 2019 at a synagogue in San Diego.
The shooter also wrote a manifesto that detailed plans to attack Black people, repeatedly citing the “great replacement” theory, a false idea that a group is orchestrating the replacement of white Americans with nonwhite people through immigration, interracial marriage, and ultimately, through violence.
The manifesto, seemingly authored by 18-year-old Payton Gendron, shared a birth date and biographical details with the suspect in custody. The PDF was initially posted to Google Docs two days before the shooting.
