Authorities are investigating whether or not a retired federal agent had advanced warning that a white supremacist was planning on murdering black people at a supermarket in New York earlier this month.
The news comes after the attacker, who The Daily Wire is not naming due to company policy about not giving notoriety to those responsible for mass casualty events, killed 10 black people in the attack at a Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo.
The retired agent is believed to be one of six people who had regular contact with the attacker in an extremist online chat room.
“The two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation stated these individuals were invited by [the assailant] to read about his mass shooting plans and the target location about 30 minutes before [the assailant] killed 10 people at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue on May 14,” The Buffalo News reported. “Agents from the FBI are in the process of tracking down and interviewing the six people, including the retired agent, and attempting to determine if any of them should be charged as accomplices.”
It is not known whether the six individuals received the invitation and read it before the tragedy occurred.
“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,” said a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened.
“The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting,” the official added. “The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.”
The news comes after another mass casualty event happened this last week in Texas where an 18-year-old Latino killed 19 students at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The assailant in Texas was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent who had just sat down for a haircut when his wife, who was a teacher at Robb Elementary School, texted him and told him what was happening and asked him for help.
“There’s an active shooter,” she said. “Help. I love you.”
The New York Times reported that the Border Patrol agent’s barber gave him a shotgun and that the agent then ran out of the barbershop and sped to the school.