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The Buffalo supermarket suspect bought the main weapon allegedly used in the shooting – a used Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic rifle – from a licensed dealer near his hometown, but said he then illegally modified the gun to be able to use a high-capacity refill.
The suspect, 18-year-old Peyton C. Hendron, described how he amassed his arsenal in long online publications that authorities believe he wrote in the weeks before Saturday’s massacre. He said he bought Bushmaster in January from Vintage Firearms, a small gun shop about 15 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, for $ 960 for a rifle, slingshot and some ammunition.
He also described how he acquired two spare weapons: a Mossberg 500 rifle, which he bought in early December, and a Savage Axis XP semi-automatic rifle, which he received from his father as a Christmas present when he was 16 years old.
Hendron was arrested on Saturday and charged with murder after police said he killed 10 people and wounded three others in a shooting at the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo. Authorities said the attack was racially motivated and that Gendron was targeting the store because it was located in a predominantly black neighborhood.
Vintage Firearms owner Robert Donald, 75, confirmed to the New York Times and ABC News on Sunday that he had sold Bushmaster to Gendron. He said an inspection of the past had not raised flags and that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had visited his shop – an old one-room house – on Saturday night to gather documents from the sale.
“I happened to have this gun at that particular moment,” Donald told ABC. “And this particular person bought it. Once the gun leaves the firearms store, you have no control.
In New York State, customers aged 18 and over have the right to purchase rifles and rifles without a permit, although they must pass an immediate criminal background check at the time of sale. (Weapons control laws are more restrictive in New York.)
Weapons background checks are thought to mean people with a history of mental illness, but usually only prohibit the sale to people in severe cases, such as people who have been institutionalized by a judge. Law enforcement officials said they investigated Gendron last June after he claimed to have made a threatening statement. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramagia said New York State Police had detained Hendron, then 17, and transferred him to a mental health hospital. He was released a day and a half later.
In 2013, New York City passed a law banning the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles with 10 common features, including protruding pistol grips, flash suppressors, and folding or telescopic butts. One of the suspect’s online posts included a photo of his Bushmaster XM-15 E2S Target rifle with what looked like a pistol grip. He did not specify whether he bought the rifle this way or added the handle later.
In one post, Gendron admitted to illegally modifying the weapon in another way. He wrote that he used his father’s electric drill to lift a state ban on a lock that prevents hookers with more than 10 rounds.
New York State law prohibits the use of high-capacity cartridges with more than 10 rounds. Gendron writes that he wants to use cartridges with 30 rounds during the slaughter so that he does not have to refill often.
In one publication, Hendron referred eight times to gun laws in New York or to those who enforced them, such as “hook” or “hook,” a misogynist popular with some far-right extremists.
“Since I live in New York, I had to buy a cucked version of this before changing it illegally,” Gendron wrote. “Since I live in cucked New York and I’m only 18, I can’t legally buy a lower or standard assault rifle.” what kind of cook does that? ”
According to the Giffords Law Center for the Prevention of Violence with Arms, eight states and the District of Columbia have banned “high-capacity ammunition cartridges” for both rifles and pistols. County and most of these states – California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont – limit the number of cartridges allowed to 10. Colorado allows 15 rounds for all firearms; Vermont allows 15 for guns.
In a detailed and often confusing explanation about his weapons and equipment, the suspect wrote that he deliberately loaded heavier cartridges to use an initial volley to break the glass in front of the supermarket, where he expected security to guard. He then loaded lighter cartridges deeper into the magazine so he could use them to target shoppers and other victims in the store. Lighter bullets move faster and can be transferred through bodies more easily, causing maximum damage as they pierce through the flesh.
The semi-automatic rifle can fire as fast as the shooter can pull the trigger. In a live video posted by the suspect online, he shot his first victims quickly outside before entering the store to shoot others, appearing to be emptying his magazine after about 30 shots. The whole sequence, from the initial shots to the reload, is about 20 seconds.
The Bushmaster rifle family is part of the ubiquitous AR-15-style weapon family, the most common rifle in the United States. A used Bushmaster XM-15 can be purchased for about $ 1,000 or less by placing it at the bottom of some AR-15 models, which sell for hundreds more. The rifle is a hassle-free option that does not have a rail system that limits accessories such as optics, lasers and front handles. The alleged shooter complained that there was no way to attach the light except with duct tape to the arm guard.
The Bushmaster XM-15 is the same rifle model that was used in two other notorious mass shootings: the 2002 DC sniper case in which two gunmen killed 10 people at random during a month-long wave of terror in the area. Washington; and the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Square, Connecticut, during which a lone gunman killed 20 first-graders and six employees.
In February, the families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook massacre filed a $ 73 million lawsuit against Remington Arms, the manufacturer of Bushmaster. Federal law makes it difficult for gun manufacturers to sue for product liability. But the plaintiffs used a new legal strategy, claiming under Connecticut law that the Bushmaster was tantamount to a weapon of war and that Remington had improperly sold rifles to civilian men.
In one of his publications, the suspect offered a mixed assessment of the Bushmaster XM-15 he had purchased. Although he said he chose the rifle because of its lethality, he complained that its 20-inch barrel was too long and cumbersome. “This is literally the worst option for me, as I will be mostly indoors and in my car.” He said he would bring the Mossberg rifle and the Savage Axis XP rifle mainly as spare parts.
When Buffalo police arrested Gendron, they said he was carrying a semi-automatic rifle that matched Bushmaster’s description. The other two pistols were removed from his car.
Jon Swaine, Reis Thebault and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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