According to The Buffalo News, a retired federal agent is now under investigation while authorities work to determine if he knew about the Buffalo, New York shooter’s plans before the event took place.
In a post from last week (May 26), the outlet states that law enforcement officials are looking to see if the former agent, who is believed to be from Texas, was one of the users who regularly communicated with suspected gunman Payton Gendron in an online chatroom.
As previously reported by REVOLT, the suspect allegedly alerted 15 members in an online chatroom on the Discord app about the deadly attack 30 minutes before carrying out his plan.
Sources say that officials believe the former federal agent could be one of six people who had regular contact with Gendron in the online discussion forum where racist rhetoric was often discussed.
While it has been stated that the accused gunman did send out invites to 15 people before the May 14 racially-motivated attack that claimed the lives of 10 Black people, it has not been determined whether or not the former agent accepted that particular link.
“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,” officials with close knowledge of the investigation said. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened.”
The source added, “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.”
Reports say that these individuals could be charged as accomplices.
Gendron was indicted by a grand jury on May 19 for first-degree murder. His next court date is June 9 at 9:30 a.m.