The mass for the victims of the Buffalo massacre becomes a cry against racism

• USA A racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo supermarket leaves at least 10 dead

The official mass

(New York) for the 10 fatalities of the racist-motivated massacre that shocked the city, became a

and a call for justice and progress towards the reconciliation.

Before the main political representatives of the state of New York, the Baptist bishop Darius Pridgen asked for

against the 18-year-old attacker who, according to the bishop, wrote a manifesto before murdering 10 people and hurt three others:

.

"What happened was

plain and simple," said State Attorney General Letitia James, who along with Governor Kathy Hochul and other political representatives

to address those present, the vast majority African Americans.

James insisted that it was "an

" because, he argued, the attacker, identified as Payton S. Gendron, a young white man from Conklin, a town 200 miles southeast of Buffalo, and whose name was not uttered throughout the service

via social media.

Already yesterday, after the shooting, FBI special agent Steven Belanger reported that his office was investigating the incident

and a case of racially motivated violent extremism."

In this sense, the governor described what happened as "an act of

" against that community and stressed that action had to be taken to prevent more massacres of this type.

According to Gendron's manifesto and to which several speakers made reference, the young man consciously chose this neighborhood of the city because it is

, as the governor confirmed today and, in fact, eleven of the victims were African-American.

A call to end weapons and hate on the networks

"This was not a random act of violence," Hochul insisted to the crowd. "We've seen enough of this. We see what happens

and people get angry or are in the middle of a gang battle and there's innocent victims."

The governor, who like the rest of the country is trying to deal with a rampant increase in gun violence in the state and

, has declared war on guns, especially illegal ones.

"Lord, forgive the anger in my heart and channel it into my passion to continue fighting to protect people,

and silence the voices of hate, racism, and white supremacism on the internet," Hochul concluded.

Grief and reconciliation

The speeches were full of harsh words like those of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who

," but above all, calls for communities to "heal" together.

"That animal by opening fire in that supermarket has tried to instill fear in this community, it has tried to divide. Now it's up to each and

, "Schumer said in a telematic intervention in which he quoted the African-American leader Martin Luther King to assert: "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Attorney General James, for her part, called for deeper dialogue and more unity to address gun violence.

"As a people we need to come together. As a people

and gun violence in general and demand that we have responsible gun laws in our country," he said.

Gendron, who turned himself in to the police after what happened, is scheduled to

to answer for this massacre.

"Don't tell me you love our people (African Americans) and you don't stand up against racism and you don't stand up against hate (...). This is the time for

. We have done nothing to you," said an enraged bishop.

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