Tops Friendly Markets was where the whole neighborhood came together. Because it was the only supermarket around, in this black neighborhood, the poorest in the city of Buffalo, near Niagara Falls. Because he sold excellent chicken. Because it was served by a bus. The community had fought for him to settle about twenty years ago, in order to open up these alleys made of worm-eaten houses, sometimes abandoned, some of which were simply destroyed in the wake of the great financial crisis of 2008, leaving green land instead.

It is this place, the heart of Buffalo’s African-American life in a forgotten neighborhood, that Payton Gendron chose to commit his massacre. This 18-year-old white supremacist had voluntarily chosen the New York state zip code where the density of African-Americans was highest to kill blacks. Saturday, May 14, he drove more than three hours from his village, Conklin, a rural town lost in New York State, on the Pennsylvania border, to reach Buffalo.

Around 2:30 p.m., he parks in front of the chosen supermarket, gets out of his car, dressed in combat gear, armed with an automatic rifle on which he has written the word “Nègre” and a helmet equipped with a camera. He begins shooting, killing at least three people, before entering the store. Payton Gendron clashes with supermarket security guard Aaron Salter, a 55-year-old retired police officer, who fires back with his gun. But Payton Gendron is protected by his bulletproof vest and kills the guard. The massacre continues, with the murder of people on the ground, broadcast live on the Twitch platform, which will cut the broadcast after two minutes.

Payton Gendron murdered ten people, including six store employees, and injured three others. Eleven of the victims are black, according to Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia. The killer then walked out of the store. Two policemen were there, yelling at him to lay down his gun. They didn’t shoot. Gendron complied and the police arrested him.

“A racially motivated hate crime”

Payton Gendron was charged with murder in the process and jailed without bail. He pleaded not guilty. He risks life imprisonment, the State of New York having abolished the death penalty, unless he is tried at the federal level for a so-called “hate” crime. Erie County Sheriff John Garcia called the attack a ” pure evil “.

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