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Police Deployment at the Buffalo Crime Scene (May 15)
Photo: BRANDON WATSON / EPA
After the racially motivated gun attack in a supermarket in the US city of Buffalo, the 18-year-old perpetrator has been charged with terrorism and ten counts of murder.
In the indictment published on Wednesday, the New York State Attorney's Office accuses the adolescent of having acted out of hatred.
The 18-year-old shot ten people in and in front of a supermarket with an assault rifle and injured three others.
Almost all of the victims were black.
Apparently he had planned his act for months and chose the supermarket as the target because it is located in a district with a majority of black residents.
Immediately before the massacre, the suspected shooter apparently shared his plans and details of his right-wing extremist ideology online.
30 minutes before the crime, he distributed invitations to his forum on the chat platform Discord, which he runs, to like-minded people, as the New York Times reported.
Apparently no one notified the authorities and the attack largely went ahead as planned.
In addition, the Washington Post reported that the suspect used a so-called high-capacity magazine - a firearm magazine that allows more than the standard number of cartridges to be held.
Republicans block tightening of law
According to the Washington Post, the murder weapon is a used Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic rifle that the perpetrator is said to have purchased from a licensed arms dealer near his hometown.
He then prepared the weapon himself so that it could be used with more ammunition.
After the attack in Buffalo and the Uvalde school massacre in Texas a few days later, a new debate on gun rights is raging in the USA.
However, the Republicans in the US Senate recently blocked a bill to better combat hate crimes.
After the Buffalo crime, the project passed the House of Representatives with a majority of Democrats.
The draft then failed in the Senate, the second chamber of the US Congress, due to the so-called filibuster.
According to this, 60 of the 100 votes in the Senate are necessary for many legislative projects so that a vote on a legislative proposal can take place at all.
jok/AFP
