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The gunman had plans to continue his rampage, says Buffalo police commissioner

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia speaks at a press conference Saturday after a shooting at a supermarket.
Joshua Bessex
/
AP
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia speaks at a press conference Saturday after a shooting at a supermarket.

The alleged perpetrator of Saturday's mass shooting planned to continue his attack beyond the Tops supermarket had he not been stopped by police, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News on Monday.

"We have uncovered information that if he escaped the [Tops] supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack," Gramaglia said. "He had plans to continue driving down Jefferson Ave to shoot more black people ... possibly go to another store [or] location."

Eleven of the 13 people who were shot — including all 10 who died — are Black.

The alleged shooter was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge hours after he was taken into custody, according to law enforcement officials.

The FBI is investigating the shooting as a hate crime and "an instance of racially motivated violent extremism," while federal authorities are also looking at potential terrorism charges.


This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rachel Treisman (she/her) is a writer and editor for the Morning Edition live blog, which she helped launch in early 2021.