There are many commonalities with regard to mass shootings in America. The shooter was known to authorities for past antics. The shooter exhibited signs of mental illness. And the authorities either dropped the ball keeping tabs on the suspected person or didn’t enforce the laws that would have prevented them from obtaining firearms.
The preventability aspect has become known with the recent Buffalo mass shooting where avowed white supremacist Payton Gendron shot and killed 10 people at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Gendron picked the location due to its high proportion of black residents. The kid threatened to shoot up his school last year. He was brought in for a mental health evaluation but was cleared.
Now, a new development in the investigation shows that Gendron told six people about his plan to commit a mass shooting some thirty minutes before the crime. One of the people in the group is a retired federal agent. NO ONE said anything. This could be the reason why (via Buffalo News):
When Payton Gendron reportedly gave a half hour advance notice to the six people he frequently talked with that he planned to commit a massacre, none of them - including the retired federal agent - contacted the FBI. https://t.co/4UQtANVihN
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 27, 2022
Law enforcement officers are investigating whether a retired federal agent had about 30 minutes advance notice of a white supremacist's plans to murder Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, two law enforcement officials told The Buffalo News.
Authorities believe the former agent – believed to be from Texas – was one of at least six individuals who regularly communicated with accused gunman Payton Gendron in an online chat room where racist hatred was discussed, the two officials said.
The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by Gendron to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before Gendron killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14.
[…]
“These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color or not of European ancestry,” said one of the two law enforcement officials with close knowledge of the investigation. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened.
“The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.”
Agents from the FBI are in the process of tracking down and interviewing the six people, including the retired agent, and attempting to determine if any of them should be charged as accomplices, the two sources with close knowledge of the probe told The Buffalo News.
The two sources did not identify the agent by name and could not confirm what federal agency he worked for.
Oh, so they’re all racists like him, huh? Well, no wonder why they didn’t say anything. And yes, if there’s enough to charge these people as accomplices for doing nothing, then throw the book at them.