How could broadcasting violent videos on the Internet be banned?
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(CNN) --
Thirty minutes before an 18-year-old white man allegedly carried out a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in a majority-black enclave of Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, he revealed his months-long plan to some online users. social.
Social media platforms pledged to curb extremism.
The Buffalo massacre puts them to the test
Payton S. Gendron -- the suspect in killing 10 people and injuring three others -- created a private chat room on the communications app Discord and invited people to view his message log before the store attack Tops Friendly Markets, a Discord spokesperson told CNN.
Suspect in Buffalo shooting created private 'chat diary record'
"What we know at this point is that the suspect created a private server, which required an invite, to function as a personal chat diary record," a Discord spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday.
"However, approximately 30 minutes before the attack, a small group of people were invited and joined the server. Prior to that, our records indicate that no other person viewed the journal messages on this private server," he clarified.
This is how the suspect in the shooting in Buffalo legally obtained the weapons with which he committed the massacre
In the posts – which were analyzed by CNN and later published more widely on 4chan, a hate-filled online forum – the suspect wrote that he visited the supermarket three times on March 8 to inspect its distribution.
He also wrote that he used Google's charting feature that shows the "busiest hours" of a location to determine when the store was most crowded.
Gendron posted that he chose the Buffalo zip code because it had the highest percentage of black people and was relatively close to his home in Conklin, New York.
The cities are about 370 kilometers apart.
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Buffalo shooter reportedly planned shooting for months 2:58
hate crime
Discord removed the server and related content "as soon as" it was detected after the shooting, the spokesperson said.
The company did not respond if any of the people invited to read the logs alerted moderators to the posts.
4Chan has not responded to requests from CNN for comment on Gendron's posts that have been shared on the platform.
The shooting targeting a supermarket in the heart of a predominantly black community is being investigated as a hate crime and a racially motivated act of violent extremism, authorities said.
And they noted that 11 of the 13 people who were shot were black.
Among the deceased is a former police officer who tried to stop the attacker, a teacher, a taxi driver and shoppers, all between 32 and 86 years old.
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"Our deepest feelings go out to the victims and their families," the Discord spokesperson said.
"Hate has no place on Discord and we are committed to combating violence and extremism," he added.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to one count of premeditated murder, according to authorities, noting that additional charges will be filed.
The imprint on social networks of the suspect has been key
Since the shooting in Buffalo, the suspect's online trail has revealed details about his plans for the attack.
And officials have followed his fingerprint to piece together his motives.
Police officers outside the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday.
First, Gendron chose a supermarket as the crime scene, rather than a church or elementary school because the store would attract many people during its peak hours, according to his Discord posts posted on 4chan.
He then noted how many black and white people were on the site each time he visited on March 8 and drew a map of the interior of the store, his posts show.
The messages also reveal that the attacker planned the massacre for March 15, but delayed it several times.
When he carried out the massacre, he was wearing a tactical helmet and silver armor as he live-streamed his movements, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
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Racist document from Buffalo shooting suspect
Officials are also examining a 180-page racist document they say Gendron wrote.
In the text, the suspect confesses to the attack and describes himself as a fascist, white supremacist and anti-Semite.
The document says the attacker did not seriously begin planning the attack until January.
The author also shares his perspective on the declining size of the white population and claims for white ethnic and cultural replacement.
"All the evidence that we determined from that manifest, wherever that manifest takes us, other evidence that we already had, we can use that and potentially develop further charges," Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said.
Supermarket shooting suspect didn't belong in Buffalo 0:23
Discord, which launched in 2015, is not as well known as other big names in the Instagram style, even though it grew to 150 million monthly active users worldwide during the pandemic.
Reminiscent of anonymous chat rooms, it combines the feel of early AOL chat rooms or the work chat app Slack with the chaotic, personalized world of MySpace.
It is also known for its gaming communities.
Suspect made school threat months before Buffalo shooting
Another warning sign may have been a threat Gendron made in June while he was a student at Susquehanna Valley Central High School in Conklin, Gramaglia said.
Gendron developed a murder-suicide project, so police sent him for a mental health evaluation, Gramaglia said.
Gendron was released after evaluation, the official added.
Online Posts Reveal Alleged Buffalo Shooter Spent Months Planning Racist Supermarket Attack
The assessment did not represent a binding commitment, so it would not have prevented the alleged attacker from buying or owning a gun under federal law, New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said at the time.
Investigate previous threat
Now, the Broome County District Attorney's Office is investigating that school threatening incident, as well as the suspect's general behavior, he said.
"We even went back several years as to what his behavior was at the time, his relationship with his family, his relationship with the teachers and students at school," prosecutor Michael Korchak told CNN.
Former classmates of Buffalo shooting suspect describe him as 'lonely, but quiet'
It is "difficult to determine" whether more should have been done at the time the threat occurred, he added.
"So there were no direct threats to any students or teachers," Korchak said.
"People who have mental health issues can get them under control for a period, and then one day they just snap and tragic things like this happen," he added.
No further action was requested against the suspect after the threat
After the school threat, New York State Police officers did not file a "red flag" protective order against Gendron, a state police spokesman told CNN on Tuesday.
The Red Flag Law, also known as the extreme risk protection order law, was enacted on August 24, 2019, and is designed to prevent anyone who shows signs of posing a threat to themselves or others from purchasing a firearm, according to the state website.
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Suspect in Buffalo massacre planned to 'go on killing spree' after killing 10 people in supermarket, police reveal
State Police declined to go into detail about why the request to implement the law was not made.
"The threat was general in nature and was not directed at the school or anyone in particular, and did not specifically mention shooting or firearms," a security official told CNN.
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Certain doctors who determine whether someone is likely to "engage in conduct that could result in serious harm to self or others" must report it to a county Health Commissioner, who can report it to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.
This agency can stop people from buying guns and revoke gun permits, a former top official with the state Office of Mental Health told CNN this week.
Federal law prohibits someone in an involuntary mental health facility from purchasing a gun, the official said.
But it does not include someone who is in a mental institution "for observation," he clarified.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, Jenn Selva, Brian Todd and Jennifer Hauser, Travis Caldwell, Mark Morales and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
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