The accused gunman was able to get an assault-style weapon even though he had made a threat in high school.
Good morning. It’s Tuesday. We’ll follow developments in the Buffalo supermarket massacre. We’ll look at the city’s move to recommend but not mandate masks indoors. His screen name on the website Discord was Jimboiii. He posted racist and rambling remarks, including one that said “humanity will cease to develop if the White race is eliminated.”
Jimboiii was also the name used in a livestream from the mass shooting in Buffalo on Saturday that left 10 people dead. And as the posts provided details about the gunman’s motives, officials said he had planned a prolonged massacre, with the Buffalo police commissioner saying on CNN that the assailant had spoken “about possibly going to another store” and continuing the rampage. The postings called into question the effectiveness of New York’s so-called red-flag law, which was intended to prevent people who pose a danger to themselves or others from possessing firearms. But nothing stopped Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old suspect in the supermarket shootings, from buying an assault-style rifle even though the state police had sent him for a mental-health evaluation. At issue was a comment he had made at his high school about wanting to commit a murder-suicide. He characterized the remark as a joke, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. The postings that came to light on Monday indicated he had lied his way through questioning. The state police confirmed on Monday that they did not seek a red-flag order against him. In the days before the attack, he posted pictures of himself and of the gun he used. He had written the names of other mass shooters on it with white correction fluid. The postings, previously reported by The , also suggested that he intended to stage his killing on March 15 to correspond with the anniversary of a 2019 attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead. In a separate screed he is believed to have posted before the attack on Saturday, he expressed admiration for the gunman in the New Zealand assault. Other details that emerged on Monday suggested that he had spent months considering possible targets. He decided against going to a predominantly Black elementary school in Buffalo, thinking it would be too hard to enter. President Biden will visit Buffalo on Tuesday “to grieve” with families, including relatives of Ruth Whitfield, who at 86 was the oldest of the victims. On Monday her family demanded that officials do more to fight white supremacy and the widespread availability of guns often used in such mass shootings.
“We’re tired of losing our loved ones to senseless violence,” said Garnell Whitfield, a former Buffalo fire commissioner, flanked by his siblings as well as Ruth Whitfield’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
