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The alleged shooter, taken into custody by police, streamed the murders online where he also posted what has been described as a racist manuscript.

By Jon Queally, Common Dreams

Ten people were killed and another three people wounded in Buffalo, New York on Saturday afternoon by a gunman who opened fire inside a supermarket, a pre-planned shooting that he live-streamed on the internet and evidence indicates was motivated by racial hatred and white supremacist ideology.

buffalo shooter taken safely into custody face blacked out

“This was pure evil,” said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia during a press conference on Saturday. The killings, he said, “was straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community.”

The Buffalo Police Department told news outlets that of 13 people shot, eleven of the victims were African American while two were white. Police said four of the victims were store employees while the others were presumably shoppers or bystanders at the Tops Market located on Jefferson Avenue.

One police official told Buffalo News that the scene at the market was “like walking onto a horror movie, but everything is real.” The official said it was “Armageddon-like” and completely “overwhelming” to witness.

“What started out as a beautiful day in the City of Buffalo has turned into a terrible day, and one of tremendous heartbreak for every member of our community,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.

According to reporting by local news outlet BNO News just after the shooting:

A man has opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York while live-streaming on Twitch, killing at least 8 people and injuring several others, local officials and witnesses say. He also posted an online manifesto in which he described himself as a white supremacist.

The incident began on early Saturday afternoon when police were called for an active shooter at Tops Markets at 1275 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. Upon arrival, officers found victims on the ground outside the store and others inside the building itself.

After police earlier confirmed a suspect was taken into custody and photographs circulated on social media of a man in handcuffs wearing military fatigues, court filings identified the alleged gunman as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, New York. Arraigned on murder charges he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

One eye-witness who spoke to the Buffalo News immediately after the shooting said, “I just heard shots. Shots and shots and shots.”

The person, who identified himself as Will G., said: “I hid. I just hid. I wasn’t going to leave that room.”

In the wake of the shooting, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said the attack and the murders were being treated as a hate crime based on evidence that there was some “racial animosity” by the shooter.

“I’m not going to specifically talk about or elaborate on what exactly they are right now, but we have evidence in custody right now,” said Flynn, “that shows there is some racial component to these alleged actions.”

Gun Violence Racial Justice and Civil Rights