On Saturday, May 14, 2022, Buffalo experienced a horrible tragedy. A white supremacist took the lives of 10 innocent people at the Tops Friendly Market, located at 1275 Jefferson Avenue. The neighborhood is predominately African-American, and the suspect is believed to have targeted it for this reason. The killer, a young white male, has been identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, which is located about 200 miles southeast of Buffalo. In his manifesto, he spewed hate against Black people. He also had the 'n-word' written on the barrel of his gun.

Suspect In Mass Shooting In Buffalo New York

Nena M. (used with permission)

Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted,

We must confront the threat that white supremacism poses to our society head-on. I have directed the @nyspolice Hate Crimes Task Force to assist in the investigation of the heinous shooting in Buffalo today.

Buffalo is actually in the top 10 counties with the most hate crimes in the state. Here's a breakdown of the races of the perpetrators of hate crimes in New York State,

White - 104 (47.7%)
Black - 61 (28.0%)
Hispanic - 34 (15.6%)
Asian/Pacific Islander - 5 (2.3%)

These are the top four motives of hate crimes in the state,

4. Anti-Gender - 7 (3.1%)
3. Anti-LGBTQ - 43 incidents (19.3%)
2. Anti-Religion - 54 incidents (24.2%)
1. Anti-Race/Ethnicity/National Origin - 118 incidents (52.9%)

Black and Jewish people, as well as members of the LGBTQ community, are most frequently the targets of hate crimes,

• Anti-Black bias accounted for 59.2 percent (128 of 216) of the incidents involving anti-race/ethnicity/national origin bias and 26.2 percent (128 of 488) of all reported hate crimes.
• In the anti-religion bias category, antiJewish crimes accounted for the overwhelming majority of incidents: 88.3 percent (182 of 206).
• Anti-Jewish crimes accounted for 37.3 percent (182 of 488) of all hate crime incidents.
• Anti-LGBTQ bias accounted for 11.5 percent of all reported hate crimes (56
of 488).