The suspected gunman in Saturday’s racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo previously garnered police attention with a threat he made last year, officials said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said a June 2021 incident involving the suspect, Payton Gendron, was not racially charged.
“From what I have, it was a generalized threat, not a specific threat directed at a specific place or person,” Gramaglia said at a press conference in Buffalo.
Gramaglia said “the individual was brought in for a mental health evaluation. He was evaluated and then released.”
Gendron, 18, was arrested Saturday in connection with the shooting at a Tops Friendly Market store in Buffalo that left 10 dead and three wounded. Eleven of the victims were Black.
The FBI said Sunday that Gendron wasn’t on the agency’s radar before Saturday’s shooting.
Authorities are investigating a 180-page manifesto allegedly written by Gendron that says the Zip code where the supermarket is located has “the highest Black percentage that is close enough to where I live.”
Gendron is from Conklin, located about 200 miles southeast of Buffalo. Gendron has been charged with murder and is in custody without bail.
“This individual came here with the express purpose of taking as many Black lives as he could,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at Sunday’s press conference.
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