Feds: Threat of Racially Motivated Copycat Shootings Growing Online

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned in an internal memo issued Tuesday that the threat of racially motivated mass shootings is growing online, CBS News reported.

Tuesday's memo follows another DHS bulletin from early June warning that online forum users are pushing others to copy the Uvalde gunman's attack.

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The threat stems from the spread of the manifesto written by the 19-year-old gunman who killed 10 people in a predominantly Black Buffalo, New York grocery store, just 10 days before the Uvalde gunman massacred 21 people at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

The FBI, alongside DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center, said in Tuesday's memo that the Buffalo shooter's 700-plus page manifesto was "intended to serve as a manual for future attackers" and will "likely enhance the capabilities of potential mass casualty shooters who may be inspired by this attack," according to CBS.

The Buffalo gunman's manifesto contains detailed descriptions of what federal law enforcement agencies say was an extensive planning process prior to the attack, and that it was "intended to serve as a manual for future attackers." The memo's authors say that increasing dissemination of the manifesto online will "likely enhance the capabilities of potential mass casualty shooters who may be inspired by this attack," according to CBS.

The memo also revealed the past mass shooters that have been inspired by racially motivated attacks that came before them: the live-streamed 2019 attack in Christchurch, New Zealand that left 50 people dead allegedly inspired both the Buffalo shooter and the gunman who killed 23 at an El Paso, Texas Wal-Mart in 2019.

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