NJ Towns Named In Buffalo Shooter’s Manifesto: Reports

NEW JERSEY - Several Garden State towns were mentioned in a lengthy document posted by a New York teenager accused of shooting 13 individuals, killing 10, at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, according to multiple reports.

Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy confirmed to the Asbury Park Press that accused gunman Payton Gendron, 18, posted a 180-page document to Google Docs citing northern Ocean County towns. He told the publication that the affected communities were notified, and the situation is actively being monitored.

Hasidic Jewish residents in Lakewood, Jersey City and Toms River were mentioned in Gendron’s manifesto, per the Lakewood Scoop. Lakewood Mayor Raymond Coles told the Asbury Park Press that the police department is aware of active threats and that the town is “always on guard for anything.”

On Saturday, Gendron targeted Tops Friendly Market, a supermarket in a Black neighborhood. He traveled three hours from Conklin, New York, to carry out the shooting, authorities said, adding that Gendron had staked out the supermarket prior to the shooting.

The manifesto espoused "replacement theory," a white supremacist belief that non-whites will eventually replace white people because they have higher birth rates, officials told ABC News.

Police also found Gendron was a frequent visitor of websites extolling white supremacist ideologies and race-based conspiracy theories and had extensively researched other mass killings, including the 2019 mosque shootings in New Zealand, and the man who killed more than 70 people at a summer camp in Norway in 2011, an official told the Associated Press. Read more: Buffalo Shooting Latest: Accused Made Threat At School, Police Say

Of the 13 people who were shot at Tops on Saturday, 11 were Black, authorities said.

Mastronardy also noted that local law enforcement officials are already working to secure houses of worship in Ocean County, including Catholic churches due to abortion rights contentions and mosques as a result of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence.

With reporting by Jeffrey Perkins.