- A gunman opened fire at a grocery store in
Buffalo ,New York , Saturday, killing at least 10 people. - The suspect live-streamed the attack on
Twitch , the platform confirmed.
The gunman in a
"We are devastated to hear about the shooting that took place this afternoon in Buffalo, New York. Our hearts go out to the community impacted by this tragedy. Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents. The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content," Twitch said in a statement provided to Insider.
A spokesperson said their investigation found the livestream was removed within two minutes of the start of the violence. They added the company was monitoring the platform for any accounts that may try to reshare the content.
Officials said an 18-year-old white gunman opened fire at a Tops grocery store Saturday afternoon in a racially motivated attack. Of the 13 people shot, 11 were Black and two were white, Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said, adding the gunman was wearing tactical gear.
Authorities also said the gunman live-streamed the attack using a camera that was attached to the tactical helmet he was wearing.
Officials have not released the name of the suspect but said he would be charged with first-degree murder and arraigned by Saturday night.
CNN obtained a portion of the livestream, which it said it will not air, that showed the suspect pulling up to the store and saying "just got to go for it." The suspect can be seen in the rearview mirror wearing a helmet.
The incident was not the first time Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, was used to live-stream a mass shooting. In 2019, thousands of people watched a Twitch live-stream of a shooting at a synagogue in Germany before it was taken down.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference Saturday evening and condemned the social media platforms the gunman used. Though she did not specifically name Twitch, she suggested that all platforms that allowed the suspect to spread his message of racial hatred were complicit in his crime.
"They can be in a sense an accomplice to a crime like this. Perhaps not legally, but morally. They created the platform to allow this hate to be spewed," Hochul said. "The act of live-streaming this. The fact that this could even be hosted on a platform. It's absolutely shocking."