Biden heads to Buffalo to meet with shooting victims’ families : NPR
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President Biden and the first lady will travel to Buffalo on Tuesday to meet with the families of the victims of Saturday’s deadly shooting at a grocery store, according to the White House.
“They will comfort the families of the 10 people who lost their lives senselessly in this horrific shooting,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. told reporters on Monday. “And they will express gratitude for the bravery of members of law enforcement and other first responders who took immediate action to try to protect and save lives.”
The trip comes three days after a gunman opened fire at a Tops Friendly Market store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, killing 10 people. Following his arrest, the alleged 18-year-old suspect, Peyton Gendron, told officials he was targeting the Black community.
After the shooting, a document allegedly related to the gunman appeared online. It includes racist, anti-immigrant views and quotes alternative theory – a far-right, white nationalist conspiracy theory that baselessly claims that white people in America are being systematically displaced by people of color.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department was investigating the shooting “as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.”
Over the weekend, Biden said any “racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the fabric of this nation.”
“Any act of domestic terrorism, including one carried out in the name of abhorrent white nationalist ideology, is the opposite of everything we stand for in America.” Hate has no safe harbor. We must do everything in our power to end the hatred of terrorism in the country.” Biden said in a statement Sunday.
During their trip on Tuesday, the President and first lady will visit Tops Market before meeting with family members of the victims, first responders, law enforcement and local leaders side, according to a White House official.
Biden is then expected to speak at the community center, where he will call on Congress to act on gun control to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and those with serious mental illnesses.