The gunman who killed 10 people at Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y on Saturday in a racially motivated attack planned to continue killing Black people if he had escaped from the store, Buffalo Police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
“We have uncovered information that if he escaped the [Tops] supermarket, he had plans to continue his attack,” Gramaglia said, according to ABC News. “He had plans to continue driving down Jefferson Ave. to shoot more Black people … possibly go to another store [or] location.”
The gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron used an assault rifle to kill ten people inside and outside the store. Three more people were wounded.
Officials said the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.
Authorities say Gendron visited the store on March 8 and was confronted by a security guard as he was compiling detailed plans of the location, according to ABC. He drove over 200 miles again on Friday to scout out the store before returning to carry out the attack on Saturday.
Gendron pleaded not guilty Saturday night to a charge of first-degree murder. He is due back in court on May 19.
