Biden calls Buffalo supermarket shooting an ‘act of domestic terrorism’

President Joe Biden has called Saturday’s Buffalo supermarket attack “an act of domestic terrorism,” while the Justice Department has investigated the apparently racially motivated mass shooting as a hate crime.

Biden hailed in a statement that “the hearts of the entire country are with the people of Buffalo” after a gun-toting teenager killed 10 people and injured three others at a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood in the city. city.

“We still need to know more about the motivation for today’s shooting as law enforcement does their job, but we don’t need anything else to state a clear moral truth. : a racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation,” Biden said.

“Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is contrary to everything we stand for in America. Hatred must have no safe harbor. We must do all that is in our power to end domestic terrorism fueled by hatred.”

The president praised law enforcement and first responders, adding that he and first lady Jill Biden are praying for the victims and their families.

Accused gunman Payton Gendron, 18, released a rambling manifesto spouting racist views and claiming he had radicalized himself in dark corners of the web, law enforcement sources said. Eleven of his victims were black, officials said Saturday.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “working closely” with the Buffalo Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. law enforcement.

“The Department of Justice is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism,” Garland said in a statement. “The Department of Justice is committed to a thorough and prompt investigation of this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims.”