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Police: 10 People Killed In Buffalo Supermarket Shooting; Sheriff: Buffalo Shooting Was A Racially Motivated Hate Crime; Buffalo Police: Suspect Was Wearing Tactical Gear And Livestreaming When He Entered Supermarket. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired May 14, 2022 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[18:00:00]

STEVEN BELANGER, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE OF F.B.I. BUFFALO FIELD OFFICE: We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated, violent extremism.

Hate crimes fall within the F.B.I.'s Criminal Investigative Division and racially motivated violent extremism cases fall within the F.B.I.'s Counter Terrorism Division within our Domestic Terrorism Section.

The F.B.I. is providing all necessary resources, both locally and nationally to investigate this matter. We will not stop until every lead is investigated, every piece of evidence is analyzed, and until we understand how and why this horrible tragedy and crime occurred, our thoughts and our prayers are with the family and the victims who died today.

TRINI ROSS, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: I'm Trini Ross. I'm the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. I want to start by saying my thoughts and heartfelt prayers go to the family, the victims, and the community that had to suffer this great and unnecessary tragedy today.

We are working with our State, Federal and local law enforcement partners that you've already heard from to ensure that justice is brought to this community, to those victims, to their family.

The United States Attorney's Office will be investigating this case along with our law enforcement partners as a hate crime and domestic violent extremism.

I'm in touch with the highest levels of the Department of Justice. Resources will be put behind this investigation. Whatever we need, we will not stop until justice is brought to this community, those families, and the victims of this horrific crime.

I can assure you as the United States Attorney, I will bring whatever resources we need to this community to make sure that justice is done.

This should never happen to anyone in any community. It surely shouldn't happen on a beautiful Saturday when people are just shopping and going through normal life events. We will ensure that the perpetrator of this victim is given justice and justice will be done for this community.

JOHN FLYNN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, ERIE COUNTY: Let me first start off by saying thank you. Thank you to all my partners and law enforcement here from the Federal, State, and local level, the amount of work that's been done so far has been extraordinary. The amount of information that's been gathered so far has been outstanding.

And for everyone involved here from training to BPD, to the State Police to the Sheriff, I cannot thank enough.

We, here in Erie County though, are not waiting. I have already called a judge -- Judge Hannah -- to come downtown immediately and arraign this individual, so within the next hour, this individual will be arraigned on a charge of murder in the first degree.

I am not even going to mention his name right now. One, because the arraignment hasn't occurred, but more importantly, I don't want to give him any celebrityism at all right now.

I don't want to give him anything right now that puts attention on him and the alleged, and again, I say alleged despicable acts that were committed today in our great city.

So I'm not going to give his name right now. I'll give it to you after we do, after I issue a press release after he's been arraigned.

I anticipate the arraignment will be within the hour. But Judge Hannah is downtown right now. BPD and my office are drafting the charges right now and he will be arraigned tonight. And that charge of murder first degree carries with it life without parole sentence.

Now, there are two aspects of the murder in the first degree charge that potentially could be charged here. The one obviously is crystal clear right now. There is a certain subdivision of the murder in the first degree that accounts for multiple individuals getting shot and killed, which is what we have here.

As the Commissioner said, we have 10 individuals who have unfortunately lost their life, three that had been shot, but are going to survive, hopefully.

[18:05:08]

FLYNN: There is also a second subsection of the murder in the first degree that has a racial component to it. Obviously, we will investigate that further.

I want to make sure right now though, when I arraign him tonight, my clock is ticking as far as my felony hearing -- a hearing date -- which will be five days from now. So, I want to make sure that I have the best charge right now to hold him in custody, and to get this matter moving forward, before I add any other charges on it.

But I can, and if those charges are applicable, which I think they may be, they will be added on. They are not going to increase the punishment at all from a State standpoint. From the State's standpoint, it is life without parole, and that's as high as we can go.

So I also want to thank my District Attorneys across the country who have been texting me and calling me for the past two hours. I thank you for your thoughts. I thank you for your prayers. But more importantly, I want him to know that my thoughts and prayers are with the family members who have lost loved ones today in the City of Buffalo.

MAYOR BYRON BROWN, BUFFALO, NEW YORK: We will next hear from County Executive Mark Poloncarz, and then Congressman Brian Higgins.

FLYNN: And then I'll take any question if you have any.

MARK POLANCARZ, ERIE COUNTY EXECUTIVE: As has been said, by all the others, today is one of the saddest days in the City of Buffalo and Erie County's history.

All of the county's resources have been made available as necessary to assist in this unfortunate, horrific act.

As the Mayor noted, we are the City of Good Neighbors, and we of course are not defined by this act, but how we will come together to support the families of those who have lost and on behalf of the people of Erie County, I want to offer my deepest condolences to those who have lost a loved one today.

Erie County mental health counselors, as well as our partners from the mental health community are already on site to assist those who may have lost a loved one or those who were a witness to this horrific crime. And as we know, we will offer all resources possible from all parts of county government, whether it's the Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's Offices, or the other departments to ensure that not only do this individual be prosecuted for this horrible crime, and brought to the full extent of justice, but that we also can heal as a community from this traumatic experience.

REP. BRIAN HIGGINS (D-NY): Well, thank you very much. And let me just say to all of my colleagues in government, our law enforcement community, the eyes of the nation are on Buffalo, and those eyes are full of tears, and they are full of sympathy for the violence and the tragedy that's been exacted on good innocent people who went to work this morning, said goodbye to their loved ones expecting fully to return home tonight.

Ten people are not going to return tonight. Their loss, their death is a loss and a death that is exacted it on this community. Our sympathy goes to the families, our thoughts go to the families and to the victims.

And I couldn't be more proud of my Mayor, my County Executive, my District Attorney, the U.S. Attorney, and all of the elected officials that are here today and the law enforcement community who have coordinated this effort in a highly effective way.

So this is something that hopefully we will learn from, something that will serve as a basis from which enacting policy at the Federal level to get guns out of the hands of those people who should not have guns in their hands.

And we hope that time will heal, and we are a good community, we are giving community. We love our people. We love our diversity.

And again, these people were people that for the past 24 months were working in service, in service of others, in people who we call the heroes, and our heroes have been taken down today without justification.

BROWN: So as we conclude before we open up for questions, again, I want to express that our deepest and most heartfelt condolences are with the families of those who lost their lives today tragically and unnecessarily.

If you would bear with us, we will open up for questions and then we will conclude in prayer with Father Seil, the Fire Department Chaplain and our Council President, Darius Pridgen.

QUESTION: Mayor, where is the shooter from? Where is the shooter from? You said he came from --

[18:10:10]

FLYNN: We're not going to say right now. The State Police and the F.B.I. are, and the A.T.F. are investigating his residence, so we do not want to state right now where he is from, but he is from a county here in New York State that is hours away.

QUESTION: Can you give us more information on why you're calling this a hate crime at this point?

FLYNN: There are certain pieces of evidence that we have ascertained in the course of this investigation that indicate some racial animosity. I'm not going to specifically talk about or elaborate on what exactly they are right now, but we have evidence in custody right now that shows that there is some racial component to these alleged acts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Rose --

SUSAN ROSE, JOURNALIST, WBEN-AM, BUFFALO, NY: What was the weapon?

FLYNN: It was an assault weapon.

QUESTION: Was he known to law enforcement?

FLYNN: No, at this time does not appear.

QUESTION: Can you confirm if there was some sort of Manifesto?

FLYNN: I'm not going to confirm that.

QUESTION: Down here -- down here?

FLYNN: What was your question here?

QUESTION: Will there be an open court of the arraignment?

FLYNN: Well, I mean, probably not, because it's going to happen like right now in closed City Court, so no, the answer to the question is no, sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody in the back over there.

QUESTION: Could he face Federal charges or the death penalty?

ROSS: All options are on the table as we go forward with the investigation. We will put every tool in our toolbox for us to make sure justice is done for the individuals of this horrific crime in our community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Associated Press.

QUESTION: Is part of the evidence -- can you tell us about the victims? Were the victims all Black and the shooter White?

FLYNN: Yes.

QUESTION: Can you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Commissioner can add to that.

COMMISSIONER JOSEPH GRAMAGLIA, BUFFALO POLICE: So out of the 13 victims, 11 are African-American, two are White. So there were four store employees.

QUESTION: Were those four store employees fatally shot?

GRAMAGLIA: We have the security guard who was a retired Buffalo Police officer who was fatally shot. Three other store employees were nonfatal wounds.

QUESTION: Do you know the ages or an age range?

GRAMAGLIA: Not right now.

QUESTION: Was a suspect livestreaming the shooting?

GRAMAGLIA: Yes.

QUESTION: Where was that livestreamed?

FLYNN: It was on a social media platform.

QUESTION: John, when was last time a first degree murder was brought forward to a suspect in Erie County?

FLYNN: I believe it has only been done once in my tenure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Kelly?

QUESTION: Do you think he was working alone? Or could there be other dudes like him? FLYNN: At this point, it appears that he was alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tim?

QUESTION: Social media posts out there --

FLYNN: You know what, I can't comment on that.

QUESTION: Is there any reason law enforcement should have known who this individual is? Were there concerning posts that were brought to the attention of law enforcement anywhere?

FLYNN: No. At this time, we don't know that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there anyone else?

QUESTION: I want to ask. We see this everywhere else. We never think that it's going to happen here. Congressman Higgins kind of mentioned this, but these people are our neighbors. We see them at the grocery store shopping every day.

I mean, that has to be going through each and every single one of your minds right now when you heard about this?

FLYNN: Of course, and that's why we want to bring justice here. We want to bring justice to every individual who lost her life, to every family member who lost an individual today, to every individual who was -- who was a victim of this crime, not only to the family members, but to the victims themselves.

I mean, I learned a long time ago, when I was trying homicide cases back in the DA's Office 20 years ago that we in the homicide field, when we are doing a homicide investigation, we speak for the dead.

And when we speak for those who have lost their life, we are going to bring them justice, their families' justice, and this community justice.

QUESTION: Can you give us more --

BROWN: Let me respond to that, too. Many of us know this supermarket, this Tops Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue very well. Many of us have been in and out of the supermarket. Our family members have been in and out of the supermarket.

Some of us -- many of us know some of those who are victims of this horrific crime. So this is painful. This does hurt. It always hurts.

And as the U.S. Attorney Trini Ross said, this should not happen in this community and any community anywhere in our country.

QUESTION: Mayor Brown, do you think this will exacerbate racial tensions in this community this year (INAUDIBLE)?

BROWN: You know as we've all said, this is the City of Good Neighbors, we are loving community. We are prayerful that this will not exacerbate racial tensions.

[18:15:07]

BROWN: We can't let an evil person divide this community and an evil person divide our country.

ROSS: Can I address that though?

What I'm hopeful for is that this incident will bring us together because as stated, this could have been any one of us or any one of our loved ones. We shop on Saturday. We go to supermarkets. We take care of our families. We go to work.

And if this should bring us together and not tear us apart, and that's what I'm hoping as we go through the process of justice, in this case, that we all band together to let the world know, because I'm getting texts from friends in other countries about this incident today.

And we need to let the world know who Buffalo -- who Buffalo is, who the people in Buffalo are, and what we're going to do for our community and other communities in this great nation to make sure this type of crime is stopped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more, one more, one more --

FLYNN: Yes go ahead, one more.

QUESTION: Is this the first mass casualty event in the city?

FLYNN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Is this the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commissioner, Commissioner --

QUESTION: Is this the first mass casualty event in the --

GRAMAGLIA: As long as I can remember, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyone else? We've got one more?

QUESTION: What are the age ranges of the people that have passed?

FLYNN: We are not going to give that out right now.

QUESTION: Can you just tell us a little bit more about the timeline of how he was taken into custody? How long between the time this attack started and the time that it ended? Was he taken into custody? And did it take police to get there?

GRAMAGLIA: I don't have the exact answer on the time, we'll look into that. But it was a very fast response by our Patrol officers who immediately went inside the supermarket, did not hesitate as we had said.

QUESTION: Was the shooter speaking when he was livestreaming? FLYNN: We can't count on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to conclude that we're going to conclude with prayer. Father Paul.

Father Paul Seil and then Council President --

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are in the CNN Newsroom, and we begin with breaking news from Western New York.

Just moments ago, Buffalo Police confirmed an 18-year-old man opened fire at a supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others.

Police officials say they have the suspect in custody. CNN's Athena Jones was monitoring the news conference.

Athena, one official not mincing words calling this a straight up racially motivated hate crime.

ATHENA JONES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pamela.

That's right. There's still a lot we have to learn about this incident that began to unfold just a couple of hours ago that left 10 people dead at this Tops Supermarket in Buffalo.

During that press conference, we heard from several members of law enforcement as well as the Mayor of buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. BROWN: The shooter was not from this community. In fact, the shooter traveled hours from outside this community to perpetrate this crime on the people of Buffalo. A day when people were enjoying the sunshine, enjoying family, enjoying friends -- all manner of happy activities.

People in a supermarket shopping and bullets raining down on them, people's lives being snuffed out in an instant, for no reason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, as we learned in the press conference, this shooter is now in custody. He has an 18-year-old white male who officials say drove into Buffalo from outside of the community, as you heard there from the Mayor, driven several hours not from the City of Buffalo.

They believe that this is racially motivated. It is being investigated as a hate crime and it is racially motivated violent extremism. So, this is something that is certainly concerning to this community.

Anyone can relate to go into a supermarket or on a Saturday going -- handling your weekly errands and to have this sort of thing happen is just a tragedy, and it really isn't the first time. We know, of course, about the shooting at that Walmart in El Paso back

in 2019 that was also racially motivated.

So there is a lot to learn here, but we do know this suspect, he was heavily armed, wearing tactical gear and he had a camera where he was livestreaming this shooting as it was unfolding.

Now, officials there wouldn't answer the question of whether he was speaking during this livestream. So those sorts of details will still -- we'll have to wait for those. This this person arrived on the site and he shot four people just right there in the parking lot according to Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Three of those four individuals died.

The other one survived and all told, 10 people shot and killed inside this supermarket, several others injured. We understand, this suspect is being arraigned really any minute now. One of those law enforcement officials said he hoped to see the suspect arraigned in the next hour.

[18:05:10]

JONES: We also heard from the U.S. Attorney saying that they are going to do everything they can to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. We also heard in a law enforcement official saying that this suspect is going to be -- expected to be charged with first degree murder.

There is a subdivision of that where there are multiple victims, but still a lot to learn about this shooting, the motivation, the weapons and all of that.

We do understand, according to my colleague, Shimon Prokupecz, Federal law enforcement officials saying that they are reviewing a reported Manifesto posted online in connection with this Buffalo mass shooting.

But of course, this is the kind of tragic news that no one wants to hear on a Saturday, everyone can relate to this sort of thing, a mass shooting happening just at an ordinary place. People just going to get their groceries, and we'll learn more as we get it in -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, thanks so much, Athena.

And let's go to Shimon, he is standing by for us with that reporting on this manifesto that was allegedly posted online and Shimon, you know, someone who has covered the F.B.I. for so many years, I've covered it with you. You know, it actually is rare that the F.B.I. would come out so soon after and say we are investigating this as a hate crime. Officials saying this is straight up racially motivated hate crime.

How much does this Manifesto backup, provide the evidence for the officials to make such a direct statement so soon after this shooting?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly seems that it's providing a lot of information and that they believe that these documents, the Manifesto that they're reviewing has some validity and some credibility to it.

We also don't know if the alleged shooter was saying things while he was shooting, and so maybe witnesses reported seeing or hearing things that he was saying, and perhaps that may be what has also given them some more evidence to suggest that this was a hate crime.

I think it's very significant, Pam, as you pointed out, that the F.B.I. came out so strongly saying that they are going to be investigating this as a hate crime. But more importantly also, that they're going to be investigating this as a racially motivated violent extremism.

We've heard the F.B.I., other Federal officials, the Department of Homeland Security saying that this is one of the biggest threats, certainly that this country is facing, this lone wolf type attack, people who have access to weapons, nothing stopping them from getting these weapons.

There was a report just issued in 2019 that spoke about this, and this is something we've heard the F.B.I. Director talk about all the Federal officials.

So this seems to be playing out in that fashion, and the evidence so far that the F.B.I. and the Buffalo Police there have gathered, certainly giving a lot of indications and a lot of information to investigators, which has now allowed them to say that this -- that they are investigating this as a hate crime, but also significantly that this is racially motivated violent extremism, which then opens up a kind of like a counterterrorism investigation.

So you can already see the Department of Justice here in full swing with the Attorney General there, they are saying that they are going to be looking at this potentially this person, also facing Federal hate crimes.

We know that the Attorney General here in Washington, D.C. was briefed on this investigation. So you can see there is a lot of things going on now at the F.B.I. and Federal partners to try and figure out exactly what led to this, what motivated this. They have a lot of information.

If this Manifesto is in fact there, can say, you know, with some certainty that this manifesto is from this alleged shooter, it's going to provide them a lot of information as to motivation.

You know, sadly, we've covered so many of these shootings recently, and sometimes we don't have motivation, right? We see these shootings where it's not always clear cut what was the motivation. Here, that seems to be the case. It is very clear cut to officials with what they're dealing with.

I think also significantly that the authorities there, talking about how the alleged shooter turned the gun on himself and seemingly to indicate that he was going to take his own life, but that the police were able to stop that. And so they now have this person in custody and that's going to

provide them a lot of information, perhaps this individual is speaking, but certainly, I think with the DA, they are saying that they're ready to arraign him. They are charging this individual.

They have overwhelming evidence that is allowing them to do so with this video of this shooting, just so horrific, in the sense of what motivated him to drive so many hours to this particular location. That's going to be part of the motivation as well.

Was he targeting this community specifically? That's something that the investigators are going to want to figure out as well, but certainly significant to see the F.B.I. here so quickly come out and talk about this being a hate crime, talking about how this was racially motivated violent extremism, something that the F.B.I. has been worried about something that the F.B.I. has said, along with the Department of Homeland Security, have said that this is going to be something that this country is going to be dealing with.

[18:25:22]

PROKUPECZ: And is a great, great danger to us, and we're seeing this so far based on all the information that the F.B.I. is providing and the Buffalo Police that this is what we're dealing with here.

BROWN: It certainly appears that way, and it really is worth again, underscoring how quickly officials came out to call this a hate crime. You know, typically they'll say things like there are indications and so forth, but they are coming right out of the gate after the shooting -- in the early hours after the shooting, calling it just that.

Shimon Prokupecz --

PROKUPECZ: I am going to make -- just a point here, if you remember the synagogue shooting that we covered, remember when the F.B.I. took some heat because they didn't come out quicker and say what it is and so we're seeing perhaps maybe some lessons learned from that.

When you have information, when you know something is something, just say it and perhaps that's why we're seeing them so quickly come out and release this information -- Pam.

BROWN: Yes, that's a really good point.

PROKUPECZ: It was the hostage situation, yes.

BROWN: Right, of course. All right, thank you so much. All right, let's go to CNN's Arlette Saenz at the White House. Arlette, how is the Biden administration reacting?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, President Biden has been briefed on this shooting in Buffalo, New York.

The President is spending the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the new White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the President was briefed by his Homeland Security Adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood Randall and will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and into tomorrow as more information comes in.

Jean-Pierre also said, quote, "The President and the First Lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones."

Now, we've also learned that the Attorney General Merrick Garland, as well as the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas have also both been briefed on the matter and in that press conference just held minutes ago, Buffalo's Mayor Byron Brown said that he has heard personally from the White House, we will see whether President Biden has any further conversations, possibly with the mayor or other officials in New York.

Now the President is spending the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, but he is slated to return here to Washington tomorrow where he is scheduled to speak at a Memorial service honoring those law enforcement officials who have lost their lives in the last year. That could provide one of the first opportunities for the President to publicly speak about this tragedy, as yet another mass shooting has unfolded in this country while the President has been in office -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, thanks so much, Arlette live for us from the White House tonight.

CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem and former F.B.I. Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, they will join us when we come back right after this short break.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:05]

BROWN: More now on our breaking news out of Buffalo, New York where a man opened fire just hours ago at a neighborhood grocery store, killing 10 people and wounding three others. Police say the shooter is white and that the crime was racially motivated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOHN GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK: This was pure evil. It was straight up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside our community, outside of the city of good neighbors, as the Mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us.

I urge everyone to stay calm and we are there to protect the citizens of Erie County and Buffalo and we'll be up there along with the City of Buffalo Police Department patrolling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We want and talk about it with CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Hi, Andrew. Let's start with you on this. Police say the suspect livestreamed the entire ordeal that it was livestreamed onto a social media platform. They took him into custody at the scene. What are authorities doing right now?

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Well, Pam, as you can imagine, they are trying to peel back every aspect of this individual. So they have someone identified. They then extrapolate that out to his residents, to his family members, to maybe his work location, there'll be executing search warrants at any location or vehicle that can associate with him. At the same time analysts at the FBI and possibly also at the New York State Police will be looking at every aspect of his presence on the internet.

So his own social media accounts, places that he may have posted or made statements or posted videos or maybe other videos similar to this one. They want to know as much about him and his motivation as they possibly can.

And most importantly, they want to know if he has been in communication with anyone else who might be like minded who might be motivated to undertake a similar attack or who might look at this as some sort of a triggering event. So the first thing they're worried about are follow on or copycat attacks.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

BROWN: Yes. I know that is always the worry after shooting like this.

And in terms of emotive, Juliette, it seems like officials already have a lot of evidence to indicate to them what the motive likely is.

KAYYEM: Right.

BROWN: I mean, we should note that they are looking at this manifesto that Shimon just reported on. We don't know exactly what was in that, but we're waiting to learn more. We know the suspect - basic fact here. The suspect is white. This community is predominantly black. Official said they are investigating this as a hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism. What does that tell you?

KAYYEM: Yes. There's no mincing of words in this press conference.

[18:35:02]

I was surprised how quickly they were directing the motivation towards race. So a couple of things coming out of this press conference, the first I want to say is, is there's a focus on the fact he's not from Buffalo. They say he's from New York and he drove a long time. I know New York pretty well, that means that we're looking at either New York City or Albany or the northern areas.

New York City is a quite a liberal city, but there are elements of strong radicalization and race and hatred of groups in other parts of New York State. So that's going to be a focus, because my question is sort of why - I know why this market, it's a predominantly African- American community, but why this one specifically, was there recon, had he gone there, did he have ties there. The second just to remind viewers, when - this will be a discussion

about guns, how quickly people were killed, the inability to protect them, even though the police were right there, there was an armed security guard who engaged the assailant. And so the idea that guns can protect from guns, I mean, here's another piece of evidence that suggests and I should say that guard, former police - Buffalo Police is dead. The assailant, the murderer was in heavy military guard protecting himself.

So it's very hard to defend yourself against someone who's in sort of military gear. The third thing I want to say about this motivation thing, it's just very important to remember there can be lone wolves, people who act alone and that's maybe what this manifesto suggests the police are certainly saying that, but who are motivated by other things, right?

It's not like they're sitting alone in their room deciding, I'm going to hate African-Americans and that is where the manifesto is going to come into play. We don't know what led him to this moment. What factors of race and race hostility led him to this moment, but I think the idea of a lone wolf is ridiculous in this day and age in terms of social media.

BROWN: Right.

KAYYEM: People are getting radicalized. And I think it's important to remember that as we go into this investigation, even though there's only one killer, there's an apparatus that supporting this white supremacy, this racial animus, this is what the White House and DHS are focused on,

BROWN: Of course, and it is worth noting, again, that he - the suspect, allegedly livestream this to a social media platform.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BROWN: Right? And that tells you that is a big clue right there, Andy. I imagine four FBI agents, local officials there investigating this in terms of maybe what the suspect was looking at taking in prior to the shooting, but also the premeditation involved here, right? I mean, to attach a camera to your helmet drive hours to engage in this shooting, killing at least 10 people I mean, that shows a level of deep planning and premeditation.

MCCABE: Absolutely, Pam. The planning is intense here. Let's put the camera aside just for a second, the military clothing, the tactical gear which likely included a Kevlar vest possibly with ceramic plates. I think one of the speakers mentioned that at the press conference, the traveling for hours, the procurement of the rifle, bringing that with him.

There's a lot of indicators here of a high degree of organized thought going into this. That camera takes it to a totally different level. If you remember the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand in March of 2019 where you had a racially motivated shooter who shot up - killed over 50 people injured 40 more at two different mosques on one afternoon in Christchurch.

That shooter livestreamed his attack, put it up on the internet, and that event has served as a massive motivational, inspirational moment for extremists all over the world. It is possible, we don't know this yet, but this shooter is trying to elevate himself in his own horrific actions to that same level of motivation and inspiration for others.

So the use of the camera livestreaming the attack really takes it to a new level of not just planning but perfidious rage. This guy wanted the world to see what he had done and he wanted it out there for you know in perpetuity so it's just incredibly hateful but that's really how you have to think.

BROWN: I mean it just makes you sick to your stomach right to think about this, the fact that the suspect who is 18 years old went through this, went through the kind of planning and the camera and went to livestream it, I mean all of it just really - it's just - there are just no words to describe how disgusting and horrible it all is.

[18:40:00]

Andrew McCabe, Juliette Kayyem, thank you both. Stick around we'll be back to you later in the show thank you.

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[18:44:33]

BROWN: We're following breaking news out of Buffalo, New York where a mass shooting this afternoon at a supermarket left at least 10 people dead. The shooter is in custody. Let's bring in Brian Stelter, CNN's Chief Media Correspondent. Brian, the Buffalo Police Commissioner piece together part of the timeline for us, talked about how the suspect livestreamed the shooting on a social media platform. What more can you tell us?

[18:45:00]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That's right and we now know the platform, Pamela.

Online radicalization is not just something that happens in faraway lands, it is happening right here in the United States. We have seen too many of these attacks, where somebody is poisoned by lies on the internet and then acts out in person. And it appears we are seeing it again today.

Twitch, which is a very popular livestreaming platform owned by Amazon is confirming that its platform was used by this - the suspect in Buffalo today and here's a statement from Twitch. Twitch is best known for gaming, but there certainly are more political elements used by extremists on Twitch. And so the company is saying, "We are devastated to hear about the shooting. Our hearts go out to the community impacted."

Twitch has a zero tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents. That's important. And I'll explain why in a moment.

The company says the user has been indefinitely suspended from our service and we're taking all appropriate action including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content. That's very important, because when we have seen these types of attacks in the past, where gunmen use their phones, or they use their computers to livestream attacks, sometimes the content is shared and reshared and goes viral online.

So Twitch is saying it's trying to stop that from happening in this case, whether they succeed or not is another question. But they say they're trying to make sure that this livestream is not reshared. A lot of what we're hearing so far, Pamela, unfortunately, bears similarities to the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, a manifesto, a livestream.

There are some scary similarities here and we'll have to see what the evidence brings us in the hours to come about a white suspect in a mostly black neighborhood with a manifesto that bears a lot of similarities of Christchurch and unfortunately, we've seen this technology used again and again, not to connect people and unite people, but to divide and poison them with lies.

BROWN: Yes. Sadly, we have seen this before. And again, worth reiterating to our viewers that one of the officials there at the press conference, they just had there in Buffalo came out and called it this is straight up racially motivated hate crime. Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

And if you are just now joining us, we're covering breaking news out of Buffalo, New York, where a man opened fire at a supermarket this afternoon. Police say he killed at least 10 people and they're looking at a purported online manifesto tied to the shooter. I want to welcome back former FBI Director Andrew McCabe and CNN National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, I want to start with you this time, because something you said in the last block really just stuck with me. And you said, this idea of a lone wolf is just not believable anymore, right, in this day and age. And even though officials said there at that press conference, they believe the suspect acted alone.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BROWN: Tell us what you meant. Explain a little bit more on the heels of what Brian just laid down about the social media platform Twitch and the fact that suspect livestreamed it, tell us what you meant by what you said.

KAYYEM: So I mean, there's two issues going on here. So one is you can say that someone acted alone and that's what we tend to think of as lone wolf that is not five people or 10 people are orchestrated attack. But that - but the idea of a lone wolf, I think I've been saying for a couple yes

Now, that might not have been an apparatus that told them to do this on that date. But these are people who are getting radicalized by an ecosystem of hate. This is what the FBI has been documented for over a decade. It's what we mean in government when we talk about violent extremism.

And so the - so we - so lone wolf, I think, just - makes it sound like they just sort of woke up one day and decided to kill a bunch of black people, that just doesn't happen. I mean, this is a person who devastated an African-American community because they were black and that notion, that idea of their racial animus is what we're looking for in the manifesto. I'll be careful here.

But the reason why the manifesto is relevant is it will show where did that apparatus and hate come from? This is in large measure due to social media. It also has to do with the fact that what we see on - in online radicalization is they tend to sort of egg each other on, so someone with crazy ideas or someone with horrible ideas, I should say, some of the - these people are quite sane often - will then realize, well, I'm not alone. I'm with this apparatus just like the former KKK meeting at a - meeting in a forest or on the backside of a church in the 1950s, right? They actually have this apparatus and then they become radicalized. And we don't know the form of this radicalization. We don't know what - who, what, where motivated.

[15:50:01]

But that's why this is relevant, So lone wolf I think excuses an apparatus of hate that exist in this country and is the number one terror threat in this country right now.

BROWN: Andy, what do you make of the fact the suspect was only 18 years old?

MCCABE: I mean, I think it shows you how effective these systems and structures of radicalization that Juliette was just talking about are in this day and age. This has been going on since the '50s and the '30s before that.

There have always been communities around radicalization, particularly in the racially motivated communities in this country, the white power groups that over time who gotten better and better at organizing, about distributing literature to each other, about recruiting each other. They used to have to do that by hand and through the mail.

All of that gets done immediately on the internet now, predominantly through social media. It is the most powerful form of radicalization, whether you're talking about Muslim extremists in Syria or you're talking about racially motivated extremists, right here in our own backyard.

And no matter what you want, no matter what sort of affirmation and acknowledgement you're looking for, depending on how horrific your beliefs are, you can find it out there on the internet very quickly. And in fact, social media companies through the algorithms they deploy, are designed to send you more of the content you seek.

So it's - it actually helps people radicalize. As you first start looking for things that are slightly extremist and then you like them and retweet them, you start to get more and more of them fed to you over time. So it's like a process designed to radicalize people, essentially.

So that's where we are and that's why it happens to someone even only 18 years old. We all know teenagers (inaudible) have them in their families and everything else who are on their phones and looking at social media on the Internet, seemingly all the time. If you do that in this way, with this sort of content, it's not a surprise that this is where you end up. It's just part of that process of radicalization no matter what age you are.

BROWN: I'm wondering what you think Juliette about the charges here quickly, hate crime racially motivated, violent extremism. Of course, as you know, there is no domestic terrorism charged specifically, what do you make of these two charges?

KAYYEM: So these are the first of the charges. So it means that I think in the next couple of minutes, when the arraignment is happening, we will probably learn more about what they have, I - they, in the press conference, they would not confirm a manifesto, anyone who - we are discussing at least the presence of a manifesto and in that manifesto, it will show the racial animus.

And so that just increases, it could increase the penalty. It gives federal jurisdiction and would - then lead to federal hate crime or whatever the sentencing shouldn't be. But remember, these are the first, right, so this investigation is then going to continue to determine what other what other charges can be brought, how did he get the gun, in particular, and then was that lawfully obtained to how many - we don't know what in fact, is in his car and so there may be more charges there.

And finally, just the question I keep asking is he drove a long time for a very specific market, in a very African-American community and I that's just where the investigation is going to lead us or what brought him - had he been from Buffalo, what brought him to this specific market in Buffalo on this day?

BROWN: Right? And could be part of the evidence, right, that ...

KAYYEM: Yes.

BROWN: ... where they were able to come out so soon after the shooting and say ...

KAYYEM: It's amazing.

BROWN: ... this was a racially motivated hate crime. All my years covering the Justice Department I've ever seen ...

KAYYEM: Yes.

BROWN: ... officials come out so quickly to label it as such, right. I mean? Go ahead. KAYYEM: And I have to say, yes, I'm sorry to interrupt. But good for

them, I mean, honestly, I mean, just kill people because they're black, like good for them for coming out that quickly.

BROWN: Yes. Yes.

MCCABE: Yes, if I could, Pam, to answer that as well. The reason they've done it in this case is like because they immediately had undeniable evidence of that. That's not usually the case, typically, they - the FBI feels they have to do certain amount of investigation to uncover what the motive what the motive is.

They are driving it that immediately, but you don't typically get it this quickly. This guy's livestreaming on Twitch. He's written a manifesto that they were able to get their hands on very quickly. I would guess, I haven't seen any of that stuff myself, but I would guess that the evidence of his racial animosity is absolutely undeniable and that's why they're confident saying that now.

BROWN: Yes. And just quickly, Juliette, explain why officials aren't yet revealing the identity of the shooter.

KAYYEM: There might be a variety of reasons, we're going to learn it in about 10 minutes so part of it is just protecting the legal proceeding.

[18:55:04]

So they're not - we're not in a search right, now we're not looking for anyone. We believe or at least they've said that it's just him. So what - they're going to do everything by the book at this stage. If there was a search, if he had escaped, obviously, they would get the name out there.

Remember just a few weeks ago, I think I was with you on the subway shooting, they released the name or they try to find out who - disclosed a picture relatively quickly. They've got the suspect. They're going to do this carefully, maybe more slowly than we want. We're going to learn his name as part of the arraignment probably in just the next couple of minutes.

BROWN: Okay. Andrew McCabe, Juliette Kayyem, thank you and CNN Newsroom continues after this short break.

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