Biden calls Buffalo supermarket shooting 'domestic terrorism'

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday called a mass shooting at a supermarket in the state of New York "domestic terrorism."

"What happened here is simple straightforward; terrorism, domestic terrorism," Biden said at a news conference in Buffalo where a gunman killed at least 10 people Saturday in a racially-motivated attack. "Violence inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group."

His remarks came after meeting families of the victims of the shooting at Tops Supermarket. Biden recalled mass shootings in Charleston, South Carolina, El Paso, Texas and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Last year in Atlanta, this week in Dallas, Texas, and now in Buffalo, New York. White supremacy is a poison. It's a poison running through our body politic," he said.

"The ideology of white supremacy has no place in America," said Biden. "In America evil will not win. I promise you. Hate will not prevail, and white supremacy will not have the last word."

Law enforcement said Monday that the gunman had sought to drive through the city to kill additional Black people.

Payton Gendron, the alleged gunman, told police he wanted "to drive out of here and continue driving down Jefferson Ave. looking to 'shoot more Black people,' as he put it, and possibly even going to another store location," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC News.