Joseph Gramaglia: Latest News

A deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, that ended in the deaths of 10 people and three injured three is being investigated as a federal hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism.

GETZVILLE, N.Y. - The retired police officer who was shot and killed while trying to stop the gunman in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket May 14 was awarded the department's medal of honor at his funeral Wednesday, as the country processed another massacre at a Texas school that killed 19 children and two adults.Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia also posthumously promoted Aaron Salter to lieutenant, saying his actions — firing multiple times at the shooter, striking his body armor — bought precious time that allowed others in the store to escape."Aaron bravely fought evil that day," Gramaglia said at The Chapel in Getzville, where law enforcement officers from U.S. and Canadian departments filled a dozen rows.Services were also held for Pearl Young, a 77-year-old grandmother, great-grandmother and substitute teacher who was devoted to her church.Members of The Patriot Guard Riders encircle the casket of Aaron Salter Jr.

New York authorities on Sunday were investigating how a white 18-year-old, who the governor said had been on the radar of authorities since high school, was able to shoot 10 people to death in a Black neighborhood grocery store.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Shoppers out on a weekend afternoon and a retired police officer working as a security guard were among the 10 shot and killed at a Buffalo supermarket by a white teenager who authorities say was motivated by racial hatred.Police said Payton Gendron shot, in total, 11 Black people and two white people Saturday in a rampage at the Tops Friendly Market that the 18-year-old broadcast live before surrendering to authorities.Among the dead was security guard Aaron Salter — a retired Buffalo police officer — who fired multiple shots at Gendron, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Saturday. A bullet hit the gunman's armor, but had no effect.