The white gunman accused of slaughtering 10 black people at a Buffalo supermarket had visited the store two months earlier — and claimed to be “collecting consensus data” when he was confronted by a security guard, according to an online posting.
Payton Gendron, 18, went to the Tops Friendly Market on March 8 during an alleged reconnaissance trip ahead of the mass shooting, the since-deleted document, obtained by the Washington Post, showed.
“I’ve seen you go in and out… What are you doing?” the guard who approached Gendron said, according to the post.
The teen allegedly claimed he was gathering the “consensus data” before fleeing in his car, the document said.
Gendron admitted that he’d nearly been busted, writing, “In hindsight that was a close call.”
The 500-page document, which was posted on filesharing platform MediaFire last month, referred to the Tops supermarket as “attack area 1.” Two other locations within Buffalo were also identified as areas to “shoot all blacks.”
The document estimated that more than three dozen people would be shot dead during the planned attack.
During the March 8 visit, Gendron allegedly made detailed notes — including sketches of the supermarket’s layout, how many black shoppers were inside the store and the security guard’s movements.
Security guard Aaron Salter was among the 10 people gunned down inside the store on Saturday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if he was the one who questioned Gendron back in March.
The document referenced how Gendron received a speeding ticket from a New York state trooper while driving to Buffalo for the alleged reconnaissance mission. The outlet obtained a copy of Gendron’s ticket, which showed he was driving at 64 mph in a 40 mph zone on State Highway 36.
The diary is separate from a rambling white supremacist manifesto — containing similar sentiments — that Gendron allegedly posted online right before Saturday’s massacre.
In that 180-page online document, Gendron allegedly laid out detailed plans for the shooting, law-enforcement sources have said.
Gendron allegedly planned to make his way through the aisles and shoot “all black people” several times over a 4-minute span, the manifesto said.
He then mapped out how he wanted to continue his alleged rampage through the neighborhood by shooting more black victims on the street – and would potentially hit another location, including a nearby “Walmart,” the document stated.
Gendron even allegedly predicted the exact neighborhood where he might “surrender” to cops if he was able to escape the supermarket.
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