United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday condemned the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery market over the weekend, calling the attack a “vile act of racist violent extremism.”
In a statement, Guterres gave his condolences to the 13 victims of the shooting at Tops Friendly Market, at least 10 of whom were killed.
Guterres said he was appalled by the shooting, which authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Eleven of the victims are Black and the gunman allegedly published a racist manifesto online before the shooting.
“The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms racism in all its forms and discrimination based on race, religion, belief or national origin. We must all work together towards building more peaceful and inclusive societies,” the statement read.
The gunman, who was wearing a tactical vest and had briefly livestreamed the shooting on Twitch, surrendered to police.
Payton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, New York, was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge Saturday evening.
Gendron, who is white, allegedly wrote and published a 180-page manifesto via 4Chan, an online social forum in which he espoused racist ideas and white supremacist ideology including the “Great Replacement” theory, or a belief that liberals are intentionally replacing white people with minorities in the U.S. for political benefit.
The shooting follows other recent high-profile alleged hate crimes in the U.S., including the targeting of Hispanics during a deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas in 2019 and a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
On Sunday evening, another gunman shot and killed at least one person after he opened fire at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, Calif.
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