The man accused of killing 10 people at a supermarket made a ‘generalized threat’ while in high school and was brought in for a mental health evaluation before being released, official says

Thirteen people were shot at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday. Eleven of them were Black and two were White, according to Buffalo Police. 

Four of the victims were store employees, including a security guard. 

Two people remain hospitalized in stable condition, a spokesman for Erie County Medical Center told CNN Saturday night, and a third person wounded was discharged.

Authorities have announced the names of two of the people killed.

Ruth Whitfield: The mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield Jr. has been identified as one of the victims, according to Mayor Byron Brown. The 86-year-old had just gone to visit her husband in a nursing home and stopped to pick up a few items at the supermarket when she was shot and killed, he told CNN.

Aaron Salter – Brown also identified the supermarket security guard who engaged the suspect during Saturday’s mass shooting as Aaron Salter. Brown said Salter is a former Buffalo Police lieutenant who was well-known and respected around the community. Byron said Salter worked at the Tops Family Market for several years in retirement as a security officer. 

Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron was a worker at the local Conklin Reliable Market for about four months and left about three months ago, according to the store’s owner.

The owner of the store says he was very quiet and left on his own terms, giving two weeks’ notice. Gendron worked in the deli at the store and did several jobs within the market.

Neighbors say that they would see Gendron’s mother regularly walking in the neighborhood. One neighbor said the mother was a nice woman, and they “never would have thought that in a million years” that Gendron would have racist views. The neighbor added that “it’s pretty shocking.”

Another neighbor says that when you talked to Payton Gendron, “you wouldn’t get more than a word or two” from him.

President Joe Biden spoke Sunday with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul following Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

“President Biden spoke with New York Governor Kathy Hochul today to offer his condolences and support during this difficult time. President Biden also reached out to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown,” a White House official said.

The official told the pool that Biden was unable to connect with Brown. 

The mayor said he was in a church service and missed a call from Biden on Sunday, but added that he spoke with other members of the White House. 

Brown said the potential exists that President Biden could come to Buffalo ahead of his Asia trip if his schedule can be worked out.

Ten people were killed Saturday at the Tops grocery store in what authorities are investigating as a racially motivated mass shooting by a suspect in tactical gear who was live streaming the attack, law enforcement officials said. Biden addressed the shooting earlier Sunday in remarks and told reporters that he had “not yet” had a chance to speak with victims’ families.

The alleged gunman in the Buffalo mass shooting made very disturbing statements describing his motive and state of mind following his arrest, according to an official familiar with the investigation.

The official told CNN the statements made after the arrest were clear and filled with hate toward the Black community. The alleged shooter made it known he was targeting the Black community during the statements, according to the official.

Investigators have uncovered other information from search warrants and other methods indicating the alleged shooter was “studying” previous hate attacks and shootings.

Investigators previously said they are reviewing a purported manifesto posted online in connection with the mass shooting.

“The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime. It will be prosecuted as a hate crime,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday. “This is someone who has hate in their heart, soul and mind.”

Suspect surveilled the area: The suspected shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, surveilled both the community and the grocery store as part of the planning of his attack, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN.

“It sounds like he was here for maybe several days from reports that I’ve been hearing and that he did surveil this community, was scouting the supermarket, actually talked to some people in the area,” Brown told CNN.

Investigators believe the suspect researched the area and “targeted the busiest place at one of the busiest times,” New York Gov. Hochul also told CNN.

“This was targeted by zip code,” Hochul said. “This was the highest concentration of African-Americans within hours.” 

That account matches a line from an apparent manifesto posted online, where an author claiming to be Gendron says, “Zip code 14208 in Buffalo has the highest black percentage that is close enough to where I live.” 

Some background: The zip code that includes the store, 14208, is 78% Black, according to the Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey. It is among the top 2% of zip codes nationwide with the highest percentage of Black population and has the highest percentage of Black population of any zip code in upstate New York. In comparison, 13748, the zip code that includes Gendron’s hometown, Conklin, is 89% White and 0.4% Black.

CNN’s Polo Sandoval, Sarah Jorgenson and Casey Tolan contributed to this report.

The 18 year-old suspect in the Buffalo mass shooting where 10 people were killed on Saturday made a “generalized threat” while he attended Susquehanna Valley Central High School in June 2021, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday. 

State police brought the student in for a mental health evaluation and he was released a day-and-a-half later, according to Gramaglia, who added that the 2021 threat was not racially motivated.

New York State Police investigated a report that a 17-year-old student had made “a threatening statement, a spokesperson told CNN Sunday, adding that the student was taken to a hospital in June 2021 for a mental health evaluation.

The spokesman said state police responded to Susquehanna High School in Conklin, NY, on June 8, 2021, following the threatening statement. 

“The student was taken into custody under NYS Mental Health Law section 9.41 and transported to the hospital for a mental health evaluation,” State Police told CNN in an email.

State police were unable to confirm how long the individual was in the hospital or the findings of the evaluation. They also refused to name the 17-year-old. 

Earlier Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also mentioned the investigation into a threat the suspect made in high school.

“Apparently he was investigated when he was a high school student, brought to the attention of the authorities. He had a medical evaluation based on something he had written in school and so we’re going to find out what happened in the aftermath,” she said.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that warrants are being obtained for the Buffalo supermarket mass shooting suspect’s home, vehicle, social media platforms, computer, telephone, and any other digital technologies. 

At this time the investigation shows that 18-year-old Payton Gendron acted on his own in the shooting, Gramaglia said.

The police commissioner said Gendron was in Buffalo on Friday and that authorities have determined some locations he visited ahead of the shooting. He did some reconnaissance at Tops Friendly Markets store.

The first call of the incident at the supermarket occurred at 2:30 p.m., ET, on Saturday, and that patrol officers arrived a minute later, Gramaglia added.

State police and the FBI are interviewing the suspect’s parents who are cooperating with authorities, he said.

All family notifications have occurred after Saturday’s shooting at the Tops Friendly Markets store, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday.

“We had a family reunification center, and we were able to provide all those notifications so that they can begin the grieving process,” Gramaglia said. 

Gramaglia cautioned that the investigation would be lengthy. 

“There are warrants that have been obtained or warrants that will continue to be obtained both on the state and the federal levels. We’ll be looking at extensive digital platforms, computers, phones, cameras and anything else that comes into play in this investigation. The crime scene is still being held and it will be held for as long as we need it,” Gramaglia said. 

Gramaglia said the FBI is bringing in specialized equipment to help process that scene.

“This is a very significant coordinated collaborative effort with the State Police, the FBI, the sheriff’s department, everybody else that are involved in this process,” he said.

The evidence that police have recovered “makes no mistake” that the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday was a hate crime, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

“This is an absolute racist hate crime, it will prosecuted as a hate crime,” Gramaglia said at a press conference alongside other officials in Buffalo on Sunday.

Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia said the suspect is currently under suicide watch.

“He’s under direct observation from our deputies’ video surveillance … he is in a unit that is separated from all other incarcerated individuals,” Garcia said. “The bravery by the Buffalo Police officers to engage an individual with a vest, an assault rifle and handguns. I can just not say enough about their actions.”

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer has railed against what he called the “scourge of gun violence” in the United States in remarks to worshipers in Buffalo following the mass shooting Saturday which killed at least 10 people who were visiting a supermarket, which is located in the heart of the city’s Black community.

Authorities are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

Speaking virtually to the congregation at the True Bethel Baptist Church in Erie County on Sunday, Schumer described the deaths as part of an “ugly pattern” that “dates back to the earliest days of this nation”. 

“Racism unfortunately always has been and unfortunately even more still is the poison of America,” Schumer said. “The original sin of slavery — the decades of racial terror, discrimination, separate but equal, white supremacy, bigotry — continue to exert a poisonous influence in our society, we still have to reckon with unspeakable acts of racial violence, like what happened on Jefferson Avenue.”

“This isn’t about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time — I heard some commentators say that, that really got me very angry,” Sen. Schumer continued. “The only wrong time to be at a supermarket in the minds of these evil people is when it’s closed.” 

The Senate majority leader noted that while the onus must be on healing, so, too, must communities also turn their attention to the changes that can only be wrought on the government level to prevent similar kinds of violence from happening again. 

“We must tackle the scourge of gun violence and finally ban the weapons of war from our streets,” he said. “We must address the disturbing reality that the internet and social media allow purveyors of evil to spread their wicked words to poison the minds of others.”

Schumer said he’d spoken with the deputy director at the FBI who had assured him that law enforcement would be using “every investigative tool to track down and identify racial hatred and hate crimes that have motivated this reprehensible crime.”

Drawing on their faith, Schumer also encouraged the congregation to lean on one another to process the events of the prior day as a community. Citing the late Martin Luther King Jr., he reminded worshipers that only love can drive out hate. 

“There must be love,” he said. “Love for your neighbors, love for your community.”