JAKARTA - An 18-year-old white man shot people at a supermarket in the middle of a black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, United States (US).
As a result of the shooting at Tops Friendly Market, 10 people were killed and 3 others injured. The victims who died were all black citizens.
Retired firefighter Katherine Crofton, who lives near a supermarket, said she witnessed the bloodshed from her terrace.
"He [the suspect] walked into the store shooting the woman who put her shopping in her car. I lay down because I didn't know if he was going to shoot me," Crofton told the Buffalo News newspaper.
The police who gave the interim report did not name the suspect. However, she explained, the perpetrator was alone, fully armed, and wearing tactical equipment, including body armor.
Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia added that the suspect shot and killed three people in the supermarket parking lot before a gun battle with a former police officer who worked as a security guard at the store.
The security guard eventually died at the hands of the suspect who was wearing a bulletproof vest.
"This guy is so evil!" said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia at the press conference, his voice shaking with emotion.
"It was a hate crime, racially motivated by someone outside our community."
VOIR éGALEMENT:
Stephen Belongia, the FBI special agent in charge of the Buffalo area, said the attack would be investigated both as a hate crime and as an act of "racially motivated extremism" under federal law.
Local authorities said the suspect had been taken into custody. He said the perpetrator would appear first in court to face murder charges in the near future.
"This is a very painful day for our community," Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown told reporters.
"Many of us have been in and out of that supermarket many times... We cannot allow this hateful person to divide our community or our country," he said.
Brown said he had received calls from the White House and New York attorney general, Letitia James.
A Democrat in New York and chairman of the US Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, said the attack was a cruel act by a white supremacist man.
"We must pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, without delay," he tweeted.
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