It’s been quite the week for law enforcement proving themselves useless, though that’s always been the case—just usually not in such high-profile circumstances. Direct your rage toward yet another shooting that preceded the most recent one: the attack at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York on May 14. According to the Buffalo News, officials are looking into whether a retired federal agent may have known about the gunman’s plans in advance, as the agent was one of six people who communicated with the suspect regularly. The agent, believed to be from Texas, was invited by the suspect into a chatroom in which the 18-year-old shared his plans around half an hour before he opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring three others.
Officials aren’t sure if the agent accepted the invitation, but they said they’ll be conducting interviews with the six people in regular communication with the suspect, who frequently posted in a white supremacist chat with other white supremacists. “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,” an official told the Buffalo News. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened.”
Ultimately, 15 people accepted the suspect’s invitation into a Discord chat room in which he laid out his plans and sent a link to his live stream of the attack—none of whom apparently notified law enforcement. In addition to seeking information from those who knew about the shooting ahead of time, officials are looking to identify someone known as “Sandman” who apparently offered advice to the gunman on his choice of weapons ahead of the attack. The suspect has been charged with first-degree murder and was indicted by a grand jury.