10 killed in US supermarket shooting, being probed as hate crime

A heavily armoured gunman killed 10 people and injured three at a supermarket in Buffalo New York authorities said adding that the US Department of Justice DOJ is investigating the incident as a hate crimeThe suspect is an 18yearold white man who was heavily armed with tactical gear and a helmet during the shooting on Saturday afternoon Xinhua news agency quoted Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia as saying to reporters late SaturdayThe gunman wore militarystyle clothing and body armour while carrying a rifle according to reports He had a camera and the shooting was live streamed according to Gramaglia Gramaglia said 11 victims are black while the other two are whiteThe suspect drove to the Tops Friendly Market at around 230 pm and shot four people in the parking lot After shooting innocents inside the supermarket the gunman once put the gun to his own neck but was persuaded by patrol officers to drop his gun according to GramagliaThe gunman has been taken into custody and transported to Buffalo Police Headquarters The suspect will be arraigned on charge of murder in first degree according to a district attorneyIn a statement on Saturday night US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the DOJ is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of raciallymotivated violent extremismHe vowed to conduct a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seek justice for these innocent victimsFederal law enforcement agencies including the FBI are working with Buffalo Police Department and other partners according to Garlands statementMeanwhile Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said that the shooter was not from this community In fact the shooter travelled hours from outside this community to perpetrate this crime on the people of BuffaloThe supermarket is located in a blackdominated community which is around 32 km northeast of downtown BuffaloNew York Governor Kathy Hochul who was born in Buffalo said she is on the way to to assist with the response to the shooting and a family unification site has been set up for family members of the shooting victimsWe must do more to address the scourge of racism and antiSemitism and to pass commonsense gun safety measures to keep our communities safe said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York StateMore than 28000 people have died or been injured due to gunrelated incidents in the United States this year according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence ArchiveThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever