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The white teen accused of murdering 10 Black people at a New York grocery store planned the shooting for months -- and scoped out the location ahead of time, social media posts attributed to the suspect show.
Payton Gendron, 18, visited the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo three times on March 8, and wrote afterwards of his intention to commit murder -- according to posts he is believed to have made on Discord and 4chan, both sites popular with radicals.
He wrote about how many Black and white shoppers were inside and mapped out the supermarket's aisles, CNN and The Washington Post reported.
Gendron posted that during his third trip he was approached by a "Black armed security guard" who asked him what he was doing going in and out the store.
The alleged shooter made up an excuse about collecting census data. "In hindsight that was a close call," Gendron wrote.
In a post on March 10, Gendron wrote, "I'm going to have to kill that security guard at Tops. I hope he doesn't kill me or even hurt me instantly," CNN reported.
Among the victims of Saturday's shooting was a retired police officer working as a security guard. He fired several shots at the assailant before being shot himself, police said.
Gendron first wrote about killing Black people in December and decided in February to target Tops based on its large surrounding African American population, according to the Post, which reviewed more than 600 pages of online messages.
Gendron said he had chosen Buffalo as the preferred site of his attack because its zip code had a higher Black population than other locations he was considering, CNN reported.
He allegedly wrote about how he planned to carry out his attack on March 15 but delayed several times.
Wearing heavy body armor and wielding an AR-15 assault rifle, the white supremacist is accused of livestreaming Saturday's racist rampage.
He has pleaded not guilty to a single count of first-degree murder.
‘What happened here is straightforward terrorism’: Biden condemns ‘those who spread’ Great Replacement ‘lie’
President Joe Biden unequivocally condemned white supremacism, domestic terrorism, and those who spread the "lie" known as the great replacement theory, during impassioned remarks at the Delevan Grider Community Center in Buffalo, New York Tuesday. The President, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and other top Democrats traveled to Buffalo to grieve and mourn with those suffering after a self-avowed white supremacist and antisemite massacred ten Black people in a neighborhood supermarket Saturday.
"White supremacy is a poison," President Biden declared repeatedly, lamenting that "it's been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes."
"No more," he declared. "We need to say as clearly and as forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. None."
"Silence is complicity. We cannot remain silent."
In remarks following the deadly Buffalo, NY mass shooting, President Biden says white supremacy "is a poison." "We need to say as clearly as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America ... Silence is complicity. We cannot remain silent." pic.twitter.com/BWkrAckocV
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 17, 2022
The President also warned that democracy itself in America is in danger as he chastised "those who pretend to love America."
Pres. Biden delivers remarks after 10 people were killed in Buffalo, NY: "The American experiment in democracy is in a danger like it hasn't been in my lifetime. It's endangered this hour. Hate and fear have been given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America." pic.twitter.com/F6Ssw4bWy7
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 17, 2022
The President paid tribute to those who were shot and killed on Saturday.
“What happened here is simple and straightforward: Terrorism. Domestic terrorism. Violence inflicted in the service of hate and the vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people as inherently inferior to any other group," he told mourning community members.
SPECIAL REPORT: President Biden is discussing the Buffalo mass shooting after meeting with families and first responders. https://t.co/u3m1AkjCLE
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 17, 2022
"I call on all Americans to reject the lie," of great replacement, President Biden implored. "And I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for profit."
“Evil will not win, I promise you,” President Biden declared.
Black students in Marjorie Taylor Greene's district sue schools for allowing Confederate flags but not BLM
A group of Black students have filed a lawsuit in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) district alleging that the local school system discriminated against them while allowing white students to wear Confederate symbols.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Rome on Tuesday against Floyd County Schools.
The Black students said that they were suspended for organizing a protest over the killing of George Floyd. And the school allegedly forced them to wear their shirts inside out because of Black Lives Matter slogans or George Floyd images.
Meanwhile, white students were allegedly allowed to re-enact Floyd's killing at Coosa High. The white students were also allowed to wear Confederate flag symbols on shirts and belt buckles, the lawsuit said.
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Floyd County Schools did not offer a response to the Journal-Constitution.
The plaintiffs said that more information would be available at a press conference on Tuesday.
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