Shooting in Buffalo: New Wave of Terror Attacks
In Buffalo, New York a mass terror attack left ten people dead last Saturday in a local supermarket. The suspect, an 18-year-old, has been accused of carrying out a terror attack against the local African American community in what has been described as a white-supremist attack. The Attorney General’s Office has described it “as a hate crime,” and will be investigated as such. With the suspect in custody the shooter has been charged with first-degree murder, but additional charges will be added, as the nature of the crime has been described as racially based with the intent to spread a message through violence and terror.
His message has been made publicly available, but per our policy it will not be linked in this article as often times these types of manifestos are for attention and trying to inspire others to do the same. The overall message was that he had been radicalized online from others who had carried out similar attacks, and that he was attempting to kill as many members of the African American community as he possibly could. Most of these messages and posts from the attacker had been posted in Discord servers as well as on 4Chan, both common places for radicalized beliefs to be shared among small communities. The messaging itself according to Discord has been an almost diary like recording in a server containing only the attacker, until just before he had invited others to read what he had written. Discord has claimed that they had no idea about the messages, which is impossible to keep track of.
The shooting itself has been described in detail by the District Attorney of Erie County John Flynn, as the attacker had been armed with an assault rifle, in an armored vest, and a camera to film the event. Before the attack had happened, it has been reported that the suspect was inside the store the day previous to look around before he was escorted out after posing as a beggar. Four people were shot outside the store, before he entered killing a security guard who had tried to stop him, and then went on to shoot eight more people inside. After police arrived, he took off his gear, disarmed himself, and turned himself in to the police. Although this is where the attack ended, new evidence points to the possibility and likelihood that this was only supposed to be the first attack in a series of mass-shootings. It has been stated that he had planned to move on to other places in the community to find more people of color to attack.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday traveled to Buffalo to make an official statement condemning the attack as well as the belief systems behind it. He stated that this was “domestic terrorism,” and that it should be considered as such, with an emphasis on the major role that internet-based radicalization played in carrying out the attack. Further than this he put for a notion of unity through his "call on all Americans to reject the lie.” Through this then some people seem to have taken this message as an attack on the Republican party, although this has not been directly stated by the president. It is clear though that he has condemned anyone who supports this attack or those who share a similar belief system “has no place in America.” This message is what was expected, but he has not yet called direct action or any particular course to prevent this from happening in the future.
