karine: good afternoon, everybody. hello. i apologize. ok. let s get started. so before we start the briefing, i want to take a moment to recognize the lives lost and forever changed in buffalo. former buffalo police lieutenant aaron salter, 55, is a hero. a security guard who engaged the suspect to save lives and was killed in the process. ruth whitfield, 86, was a mother of a retired firefighter. ruth was the rock of the family, devoted to taking care of her four children and husband. ruth was visiting the former commissioner s father in a nursing home as she did each day and she stopped at the supermarket to buy some groceries. katherine massey, 72, was a well-known community figure who wrote for her local newspapers, assisted in elections, and dressed up in costume as mr. broccoli. to teach local schoolchildren to eat right. pearl young, 77, was a substitute teacher and a true pillar in the community who volunteered at a church, food pantry every saturday. heyward patters
more about those lives that were taken so callously, solely out of hate. we re also learning more about the suspect. authorities identifying him as this 18-year-old white man who apparently traveled more than three hours from his home to target that community. a 180-page manifesto attributed to the suspect was posted online just before the attack. it shows the meticulous planning that apparently went into a racist attack in just chilling detail. we also learned the suspect was already on law enforcement s radar. he had made a generalized threat as a high school student last year. tomorrow president biden will travel to buffalo to meet with families of the victims. the terror in new york, sadly, just one of several mass shootings in recent days. let s begin with cnn s victor blackwell on the scene in buffalo. the suspect currently faces one count of first-degree murder. that really a starting point here. do we expect that federal hate crime charges will be added? reporter: y
lashing out over sweden joining finland in seeking nato membership. the kremlin is now threatening to retaliate. and there s a significant new development impacting the nationwide shortage of infant formula. a deal has just been reached to reopen a plant that was shut down because of a recall. how soon will desperately needed nourishment for america s babies are back on store shelves? we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room . we begin with new evidence that the buffalo shooting suspect was plotting a racially motivated slaughter for months. visiting the city back in march, and potentially looking to attack a second store. cnn s brian todd is on the scene for us, following all the new developments tonight. this was a straight-up hate crime, pure evil. reporter: tonight, police revealing details about the meticulous planning that went into the massacre of ten people in a buffalo store
here the day before the attack, saying he spoke with the suspect. the allege d gunman asking, ar you going to be hear tomorrow? stephanie ramos here at the scene tonight. we are also learning more about the victims here. and we will honor them. the youngest, 32, the oldest, 86. tonight here, their stories. and the hero security guard killed child confronting the shooter. our interview tonight with a mother and daughter working inside the store. what they saw that guard do. tonight, how they describe his heroism, his bravery. the investigation tonight and major questions now about the warning signs. the suspect interacting with law enforcement around the time of his high school graduation last june. his alleged threats one year ago. and what s now been found tonight. what he posted just two weeks ago on the internet. what was posted just two weeks ago on the internet? was his plan out there weeks before this horrific attack? he learned tonight. the other mass shooting in
states tomorrow, we ll have a preview of the races to watch. we begin with the aftermath of what was a violent weekend in a number of places. we start with buffalo, new york that is still realing after a white teenager carried out what they re calling a racist attack in a super market in a predominantly black neighborhood. nearly all of the victims were black. the gunman is in custody and being held on a first degree murder charge. he intended to take as many black lives as possible. president biden and first lady jill biden will visit the community to grieve with them. we are learning more about the victims, aaron salter a police officer turned security guard that tried to stop the gunman. katherine massey who tried to make her community a better place to live. pearl young who ran a food pantry for a quarter century. heyward patterson who was loading bags into a car. celestine chaney and roberto roberto drury who was just buying groceries. jesse, what have we learned about t