Joe and Jill Biden left for Buffalo on Tuesday morning where they will pay their respects at the Tops Market Memorial, the place of Saturday’s shooting, and meet with families of the 10 victims.
The president had a copy of The Washington Post tucked under his arm, with photos of some of the victims on its front page.
The first lady was dressed in black. Both looked somber.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the first couple ‘will comfort the families of the 10 people whose lives were senselessly taken in this horrific shooting. And they will express gratitude for the bravery of members of law enforcement and other law enforcement members who took immediate action to try and protect and save lives.’
Joe and Jill Biden left for Buffalo on Tuesday morning where they will pay their respects at the Tops Market Memorial
A makeshift memorial is set up in Buffalo after Saturday’s deadly shooting
Mourners light candles at a makeshift memorial outside of Tops market
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden board Marine One in route to Buffalo
President Biden will also deliver remarks at a nearby community center where he is expected to decree racially motivated violence.
‘The President will call this despicable act for what it is: terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation,’ a White House official said.
‘He’ll call on all Americans to give hate no safe harbor, and to reject the lies of racial animus that radicalize, divide us, and led to the act of racist violence we saw on Saturday that took the lives of 10 of our countrymen ,’ the official added.
The president will also push Congress to pass stricter gun control laws – a call that may be in vain. He will ask lawmakers to take legislative steps to bar those with mental illness from acquiring weapon.
Biden has previously asked lawmakers to require new background checks for gun buyers and ban military-style ‘assault’ weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Women place flowers at a memorial for victims near the scene of a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo
In Buffalo, Joe and Jill Biden will meet with the victims’ families
President Joe Biden waves from Air Force One as Jill Biden looks on
A memorial is seen for victims near the scene of a shooting
But Democrats don’t have enough votes to pass them. Other mass shootings have sparked no legislation action. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York joined the Bidens on the trip.
Biden has said he ran for president after then-President Donald Trump failed to denouce as white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Yet he’s been unsuccessful at stamping out the rise in white supremacist groups or curbing gun violence.
Thirteen were shot in Saturday’s shooting and 10 have died in what authorities are called a racially-motivated attack. Eleven of the people shot were black.
It is the latest in a spat of mass shootings that authorities said were motivated by hate, including those at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas; the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Suspect Payton Gendron, 18, allegedly planned the attack for months before he drove for three hours to carry out the attack, which authorities are calling an act of ‘violent extremism’ motivated by race.
Police said Sunday that they believe the attack had been planned for months and added that they are investigating a 180-page manifesto that Gendron reportedly posted before going on his rampage that included a plan to drive several counties away to carry out the shooting at the Tops Friendly Market.
Gendron identified himself as a white supremacist in the document as he explained his fears white people are being replaced by other races, police said.
‘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,’ Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a Saturday evening news conference.
‘People in a supermarket, shopping and bullets raining down on them. People’s lives being snuffed out in an instant for no reason.’
Jean-Pierre did not directly answer when asked why Biden was going to Buffalo on Tuesday and did not visit Waukesha, Wisconsin, after the driver of a sport utility vehicle killed six people and injured sixty-two others by hitting participants and observers at the annual Christmas parade.
‘He’s visited many communities,’ she said of the president.
‘Buffalo is not the first community – sadly – that he has to go up to, because of a violent attack,’ she said.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin slammed Biden for visiting Buffalo after not visiting his home state.
‘Last year when Darrell Brooks murdered six innocent people and injured over 60 during the Waukesha Christmas parade, the White House claimed President Biden couldn’t go to Waukesha because it would require too many “assets” and “resources.” But within hours of the most recent senseless tragedy, the White House apparently found the resources to plan a presidential trip to Buffalo,’ he said in a statement.
Seven of the victims have been named by family members by Sunday.
Shopper Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old grandmother, who is also the mother of former Buffalo fire commissioner Garnell Whitfield, and Katherine Massey, who had gone to the store to pick up some groceries, were killed, according to Buffalo News.
Pearly Young, 77, who fed needy residents in Buffalo’s Central Park neighborhood for 25 years, was shot and killed during the massacre, reporter Madison Carter tweeted,
Celestine Chaney, 65, who was at the supermarket to buy strawberries for shortcake, was killed during the shooting, her son, Wayne Jones, 48, confirmed. Roberta Drury, 32, was at the store to buy groceries for dinner when she was fatally shot, her sister Amanda Drury, 34, said.
Heyward Patterson, who would often give people rides to and from the supermarket and help them carry their groceries, was also among the 10 people fatally shot, according to Patterson’s great niece Teniqua Clark.
Officials said the rifle Gendron used in the attack was purchased legally but the magazines he used for ammunition were not allowed to be sold in New York.
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