On Saturday, May 14, 2022, Buffalo suffered a horrific tragedy. A white supremacist killed 10 innocent people at Tops Friendly Market, located at 1275 Jefferson Avenue. The neighborhood is predominantly African American and the suspect allegedly targeted him for this reason. The killer, a young white man, was identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, which is located approximately 200 miles southeast of Buffalo. In his manifesto, he spat hatred against black people. He also had the “n word” written on the barrel of his gun.

Suspect in mass shooting in Buffalo New York

Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted,

We must confront head-on the threat that white supremacism poses to our society. I led the @nyspolice Hate Crimes Task Force to help investigate the heinous shooting in Buffalo today.

Buffalo is actually in the top 10 counties with the most hate crimes in the state. Here is a breakdown of the races of hate crime perpetrators 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 for 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 the most frequent targets of hate crimes,

• Anti-black bias accounted for 59.2% (128 of 216) of incidents involving anti-racial/ethnic/national origin bias and 26.2% (128 of 488) of all reported hate crimes.
• Within the category of anti-religious bias, anti-Jewish crimes accounted for the overwhelming majority of incidents: 88.3% (182 of 206).
• Anti-Jewish crimes accounted for 37.3% (182 of 488) of all hate crime incidents.
• Anti-LGBTQ bias accounted for 11.5% of all reported hate crimes (56
of 488).

9 New York State Counties With The Most Hate Crimes

At least 10 dead, mass shooting atop Jefferson in Buffalo