The suspect in the fatal shooting of 10 people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket Saturday was reportedly haunted in his writing by the “great replacement” conspiracy theory — a viciously racist view of the world that has been touted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and several other far-right personalities.
Payton S. Gendron, who is white, repeatedly returned to the conspiracy in his 180-page online manifesto that white Americans are at risk of being replaced by people of color by immigration, interracial marriage and eventually violence, The New York Times reported Saturday. Almost all of the victims in the mass shooting were Black.
Gendron, 18, referred to “racial replacement” and “white genocide” in his writings, according to the Times. The first page included a symbol known as the sonnenrad, or black sun, which was once used by German Nazis but has been adopted by white supremacist neo-Nazis, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In an interview on CNN Saturday night, Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who represents Buffalo, called the mass shooting part of a planned, “organized” effort to attack the minority community within an “element in our society that is blatantly racist, and they’re violent.”
The horrific crime “points to an effort to exact domestic terrorism that is racially motivated,” he added. “That threat to our community in Buffalo and western New York is a threat to the nation.”
Another piece of the manifesto alleged to have been written by the shooter follows: more is posted in yesterday’s post here on NV, also from Heavy:
The manifesto answers the question, “Why did you choose firearms?” by saying, “Because they work, there are very few weapons that are easier to use and more effective at killing than firearms, especially the Bushmaster XM-15 I will be using. The effect it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide, and the changes to gun
laws that will be pushed will all help my case.”In another chilling passage, he writes, “Why did you choose (REDACTED) for the place of attack?” and explains,
(REDACTED) has the highest black population percentage (zip code *****) and isn’t that far away. Plus NY has heavy gun laws so it would ease me if I knew that any legally armed civilian was limited to 10 round magazines or cucked firearms. I replaced the name of the city to redacted because I’d prefer that the FBI and local police don’t know until the attack has started. After the attack can somebody switch it over plz?
John Flynn, Erie County’s district attorney, said the suspect would face a variety of charges, including hate crime charges. Hochul said she had directed the state’s Hate Crime Task Force to begin an investigation.
Gendron may also face federal charges.
“We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism,” said Stephen Belongia, special agent of charge of the FBI’s Buffalo field office.
Gendron graduated from Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin, about 10 miles southeast of Binghamton near the New York-Pennsylvania border. He had been a student at SUNY Broome Community College.
Source: Huffington Post and Heavy and USA Today