'This is not OK in America': Buffalo community mourns as vigils are held for victims of racist mass shooting

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A grieving community came together Sunday morning at vigils honoring the lives of those killed in a racist attack at a grocery store in Buffalo on Saturday that left 10 people dead and three others wounded.

Holding up a Black Lives Matter sign at a vigil outside the Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue, where the deadly shooting unfolded, one resident, Sharon Doyle, 55, broke down in tears as she chanted: "Black lives matter, my life matters.

“I grieved yesterday. I cried. ... And I got up and said, I’m going to do something," Doyle told NBC News.

"This is the next stage of my grief. And it was very therapeutic. And I feel a little better, but I still know that it’s an issue," she said. "So I thought I needed to do something to show that I’m not going to sit in the house and hide and cry.”

Doyle was among many drawn to vigils held to honor those killed in the racist attack and to demand justice.

At another vigil held a few streets away at the True Bethel Baptist Church, community members gathered alongside politicians, including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who spoke via video link.

Brown spoke of how he had cried Saturday night "until my pillow was wet with tears" over the racist killings. "We have to grieve. We have to let it out," he said.

Condemning Saturday's attack as an "act of racism and white supremacy," Hochul branded the shooting suspect a "coward" who "attacked people because of the color of their skin" as she addressed vigil attendees Sunday.

Violence rooted in racism

A day before, a white teenage gunman dressed in tactical gear had stormed the Tops Friendly Market, firing at 13 people, 11 of who were Black and two who were white, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

The attack was streamed on social media, with a Twitch spokesperson confirming that the stream was removed "less than two minutes after the violence started."

The suspect, Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York, was arraigned Saturday night in Buffalo City Court on one count of murder in the first degree, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office. He was remanded without bail, with a felony hearing set to take place on Thursday morning.

In a statement on Saturday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department was "investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.”

An apparent manifesto written under the suspect's name and posted to Google Docs on Thursday night, suggests a hate-filled motive, with the author claiming to have been radicalized online and appearing to adhere to the "great replacement theory."

According to the anti-hate group ADL, proponents of the replacement conspiracy theory, which has been adopted by white supremacists, claim that the white race is at risk of extinction due to immigration.

The conspiracy theory has roots dating back to the early 20th century, but today many know of it from a 2011 essay written by French writer Renaud Camus. In the essay, Camus argues that immigrants from the Middle East and Africa are replacing native white Europeans, which he says could lead to the extinction of the white race.

The Google document, which appears to have been written by the suspect, said Buffalo had been targeted in Saturday's attack because it was the city with the most Black residents in closest proximity to the suspect's home.

The apparent manifesto also repeatedly makes references to the gunman who killed 51 people and injured dozens more in the 2019 shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

‘Part of an ugly pattern’

Speaking at the vigil on Sunday, Schumer recalled how the Tops grocery store had “become a neighborhood hub and gathering place."

"I don't know what could possess someone to bring violence to a place like that," he said.

He said Saturday's shooting was "part of an ugly pattern, one that dates back to the earliest days of this nation.

"Racism, unfortunately, always has been and, unfortunately, even more still is the poison, the poison of America."

State Sen. Timothy Kennedy, a Democrat, called the suspect a “coward” who was “motivated by hate" as he addressed vigil attendees.

“This is the underbelly of our nation coming to roost in the heart of our community and it is not OK,” said Kennedy, who has a staff member whose son was wounded.

“Every ethnicity in our nation needs to say that this is not OK,” Kennedy said. “This is not OK in Buffalo. This is not OK in New York. This is not OK in America.”

Minyvonne Burke reported from Buffalo; Chantal Da Silva reported from London