Buffalo mass shooting: Biden visits Tops supermarket memorial, paying respect to victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A Buffalo teen is calling on Americans to "come together" and "build each other up" in the wake of a hate-fueled mass shooting just blocks away from his home, which left 10 people dead and three more wounded.

President Biden visited the community Tuesday to condemn White supremacy after police arrested Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old from hundreds of miles away, in what FBI Director Christopher Wray is calling "a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism."

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Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, New York, is joining other mayors in illuminating the color Orange in a call for gun violence prevention.

Brown, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the African American Mayors Association and Jim Diodati, the mayor of Niagara Falls, Canada and several other groups will use the color to honor the victims of Saturday's deadly shooting at a Buffalo supermarket. Brown met with President Biden on Tuesday.

Biden arrived to pay his respects to the victims of what investigators are calling a hate-fueled mass shooting in a predominantly Black neighborhood that left 10 dead and three wounded over the weekend.

Broome County, New York, District Attorney Mike Korchak on Tuesday slammed an "abundance of misinformation in the media" and clarified some details of a 2021 investigation into a student at Susquehanna High School in Conklin.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia on Sunday said Gendron was hospitalized and underwent a mental health evaluation in June 2021, when he graduated from Susquehanna High School, after making a "generalized threat" in his hometown of Conklin

"In early June, in an online class, he made disturbing comments regarding murder/suicide," Korchak said without naming the student. "The school followed protocol and notified the New York State Police. Based on information currently in my possession, no direct threat was made to the school of any student."

Authorities responded to the threats and transported the student to a hospital, the DA said.

"The suspect was evaluated and released. He subsequently returned to school and even participated in his graduation without incident," Korchak explained, acted in line with procedures and protocols at the time.

Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.

A complaint filed in Buffalo, New York, accuses Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gedron of first-degree murder, stating that the 18-year-old intended to cause death and serious injury to people who were not involved in a criminal transaction.

Suspected Buffalo gunman Payton Gendron, 18, reportedly discussed his plans to execute a mass shooting on the social media app Discord since at least December 2021, according to Bloomberg.

"I will carry out an attack against the replacers, and will even livestream the attack via discord and twitch," Gendron reportedly wrote on Discord in December, logs obtained by Bloomberg show.

The suspected killer referenced his plans to carry out the attack at least 17 times in December on the app and frequently mentioned the 2019 Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, the outlet reported.

He also reportedly said in a Dec. 5, 2021, Discord post that he planned to execute the attack on March 15, which would have marked three years since the Christchurch gunman fatally shot 51 people and livestreamed his attack on Facebook.

Gendron is accused of fatally shooting 10 Black victims and wounding three others, including two White victims, at a Tops grocery store on Saturday in what President Biden plans to label as a terrorist attack during his trip to the Upstate New York town on Tuesday.

Officials have said the suspect live-streamed a portion of the shooting on social media platform Twitch. A Twitch spokesperson said the stream was suspended within two minutes. Gendron also allegedly detailed his plans in an extensive manifesto. 

Fox News' Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.

President Biden on Tuesday commemorated those who lost their lives or were injured during a Saturday mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that he described as a domestic terror attack.

The president named the 13 shooting victims, ten of whom died, and detailed their backgrounds as parents, grandparents, caretakers, a deacon, a retired police officer, a public school teacher and others whose lives were suddenly cut short in a hate-fueled attack.

"What happened here is straightforward and simple. Terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism," Biden said Saturday in Buffalo, adding later that "white supremacy is a poison...running through our body politic."

The deceased victims of Saturday's mass shooting include Roberta A. Drury, 32; Margus D. Morrison, 52; Andre Mackneil of Auburn, 53; Aaron Salter, 55; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Heyward Patterson, 67; Katherine Massey, 72; Pearl Young, 77; and Ruth Whitfield; 86.

Those who suffered non-life threatening injuries include Zaire Goodman, 20; Jennifer Warrington, 50; and Christopher Braden, 55.

President Biden is expected to label Saturday's mass shooting at a Tops grocery store as an act of terrorism, according to the White House.

The president will make the remarks at a Buffalo community center while he and first lady Jill Biden pay their respects to the families of the 10 Black victims who lost their lives and three others who were wounded during Saturday's shooting.

"[T]he President will call this despicable act for what it is: terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday on Air Force One.

Additionally, Biden will "call on all Americans to give hate no safe harbor, and to reject the lies of racial animus that radicalize and divide us." He will also push Congress "to take action to keep weapons of war...off our streets," Jean-Pierre said.

She noted that the president and first lady will meet with victims' families, law enforcement officers, first responders and other local leaders "to offer their condolences and comfort to those affected by this tragedy."

"The president will call on Americans to seek a more perfect union and embraces the diversity that has made us the world's strongest and most dynamic nation in the history of the world," the press secretary continued.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden on Tuesday visited a makeshift memorial outside a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, where a Saturday mass shooting devastated and scared the nation.

The Justice Department is investigating the shooting as "a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism" after the White gunman fatally shot 10 Black victims, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Saturday.

The shooting was the deadliest racist attack since Biden took office. Biden has said the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, inspired him to run for president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An 8-year-old girl who survived the Saturday mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, says she and her father hid together in a milk freezer.

"People say I'm a very brave girl," the girl, Londin Thomas, told WKBW.

Londin and her father, Lamont Thomas, were in the baking aisle while her mother, Julie Hartwell, went to purchase food for dinner when the shots rang out, according to the outlet.

"We went to the back of the store where the milk is," Londin said. "The door was locked, and we could not get out until the manager opened the door. Then we had to go out the back door. We had the cops lead us out."

The 8-year-old said she was "scared for" her mother when they were separated during the shooting.

"I did not know what happened to her because she was in the front and I was in the back. I didn't know where she was. I thought she was gone," Londin told the outlet.

The family described seeing milk jugs exploding as the gunman's bullets ripped through the store.

President Biden has departed for Buffalo, N.Y., in the wake of the Tops Friendly Market mass shooting.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden -- at a memorial set up for the victims -- will pay their respects for the lives lost, before meeting with families, law enforcement, first responders and others affected by the tragedy.

He then will deliver a speech around 1 p.m. with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in attendance.

CONKLIN, N.Y. – New details have emerged regarding the alleged threat that accused Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron made in June 2021, leading the teenager to undergo a required mental health evaluation at a local hospital. 

Payton Gendron, now 18, said he wanted "to commit a murder-suicide" in June 2021, prompting New York State Police to respond to the local high school and take the teen into custody, said Stephen Belongia, special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office.

To read more, click here.  

A Buffalo, New York man made threats to two local businesses over the weekend and referenced a mass shooting at a local supermarket that occurred a day earlier where 10 people were killed and several others injured, authorities said Monday. 

Joseph S. Chowaniec, 52, is charged with making a terroristic threat and faces seven years in prison, Eric County District Attorney John Flynn said. 

To read more, click here.

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said the amount of violence in the country is 'numbing' after 10 were killed in a mass shooting.

Fox News' Nate Foy and Bill Hemmer provide details about Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron and two of the victims.

Fox News contributor Leo Terrell on the grocery store massacre in Buffalo being investigated as a hate crime.

Tops Friendly Markets President John Persons released a new statement on Monday, two days after alleged gunman Payton Gendron, 18, opened fire inside a Buffalo supermarket, killing 10 people.

In his statement, Persons said the company was "rapidly working to create a fund for the families of victims and those directly impacted and will be providing more information over the next few days."

He said the store would remain closed until further notice, but would be working closely with local elected officials and would also be "providing free bus shuttle service from 10am until 7pm daily from Jefferson Ave & Riley St to the nearby Tops on Elmwood Ave."

Persons added that Tops would be providing grief counseling to store associates and their families.

"My prayers are with Buffalonians during this time of sadness and grief and as this tragedy continues to unfold and we learn more about its extent," he concluded."

Read the full statement below:

Dear Valued Shoppers:

The Tops family is heartbroken over the senseless violence of this past weekend that has impacted our associates and customers of the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue - and our entire community. Tops has been committed to this community and to the City of Buffalo for decades and this tragedy will not change that commitment.

We thank our local, state and federal law enforcement agencies for their quick response and diligence and we are providing all available resources to assist authorities in the ongoing investigation.

We also want to thank Mayor Byron Brown and his staff for all their tremendous guidance and support. It has been heartwarming to see the outpouring of community support. Many of you have reached out with condolences and offers to help. Thank you.

Most importantly, we are rapidly working to create a fund for the families of victims and those directly impacted and will be providing more information over the next few days. It is our sincere hope to partner with many local and business leaders on this endeavor.

While the Tops location at Jefferson Avenue will remain closed until further notice, we are steadfast in our commitment to serving every corner of our community as we have for the past 60 years. Knowing the importance of this location and serving families on the East Side of the city, we have taken immediate steps to ensure our neighbors are able to meet their grocery and pharmacy needs by providing free bus shuttle service from 10am until 7pm daily from Jefferson Ave & Riley St to the nearby Tops on Elmwood Ave. We are also working closely with Council Member Ulysees Wingo Sr., who represents the Masten District, to provide free food and supplies to our neighbors via the Resource Council of WNY at 347 East Ferry St. in Buffalo.

As we continue to process this tragedy as a Tops family, grief counseling is available to all associates and their families beginning this Monday and Tuesday from 12:00 - 6:00 PM at the Merriweather Library on 1324 Jefferson Ave.

In addition, we thank the many local organizations that have offered their community resources for counseling support. One of those is the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County. If you are in need of immediate help, call 211 or text your zip code to 898-211.

My prayers are with Buffalonians during this time of sadness and grief and as this tragedy continues to unfold and we learn more about its extent."

Retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield Jr., the son of Buffalo mass shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, was flanked by his siblings, family and attorneys as he remembered his mother and called for action.“

Family forever changed, forever damaged, forever without the person who held us together,” Whitfield said during a Monday afternoon press conference.

Whitfield and his attorneys, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, said no legal action has yet been taken but lawyers are “absolutely going to look at filing legal action.”

They also called on President Biden and Washington lawmakers to take action, such as by passing the Anti-Black hate Crimes Bill.

“My mom got up that morning as she went up … to the nursing home, to care for the love of her life: my father, 68 years of marriage. He's [been] in that nursing home for the last eight years. And every day she would get to care for him to make sure that he had a quality of life, to do what nobody else could do for him."

He added: “She left there to get groceries on the way home … How can we just sit here? You guys out here covering this, what are we going to do to change it? How do we hold people accountable if you don't help? We're thankful that you're here, but is just not some story to drive the news cycle. This is not this is our mother. This is our lives. We need help.”

He said his elderly father does not yet know the news, and asked: “How do we tell him the love of his life – his primary caretaker, the person who kept him alive for the last eight years – how do we tell him that she's gone? Not just that she's gone, but she's gone at the hands of a white supremacist terrorist?"

Whitfield, 86, was one of 10 people shot and killed during Saturday’s tragic events at a Buffalo, N.Y. Tops supermarket, allegedly at the hands of 18-year-old Payton Gendron. Three other people were injured.

Eleven of the victims, including Salter were Black individuals, officials have said. 

Fox News' Stephen Goin contributed to this report.

A neighbor at Payton Gendron’s Conklin, N.Y. home told Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz the Gendrons were “not a bad family.”

“They’re quiet,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. “Nobody had any hankering of anything like this, that’s for sure.”

“You would never, just never picture it,” he went on. “Everybody up here, you know, just about knows everybody … And you don't hold long conversations, but you say, 'Hello,' and you’re courteous.”

The neighbor said he believed Gendron had a part-time job.

“I didn’t even know he had guns,” the neighbor went on. “They're not hunters or anything. And that's why it was strange to hear he had three.”

He added: “It's just something that people up here in this area just didn't expect.”

President Biden honored Buffalo mass shooting victim and former Buffalo Police officer Aaron Salter, Jr. during a ceremony on Monday at the White House, where he awarded Public Safety Officer Medals of Valor for “extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty."

“We pay tribute to all law enforcement officers and their families who understand what it takes, what's at risk to save and protect all of us,” Biden told the crowd. “And that includes paying tribute to the Buffalo police officer, Aaron Salter … who gave his life trying to save others when a gunman shot and killed 10 innocent people at a grocery store in Buffalo on Saturday.”

Biden added: “He actually was able to shoot the assailant twice, but he had he had on a bulletproof vest and he lost his life in the process. No one understands more than all of you here today the pain and anguish those families in Buffalo feel.”

Salter, 55, was one of 10 people shot and killed during Saturday’s tragic events at a Buffalo, N.Y. Tops supermarket, allegedly at the hands of 18-year-old Payton Gendron. Three other people were injured.

Eleven of the victims, including Salter were Black individuals, officials have said. 

The president is expected to travel to Buffalo on Tuesday.