Mass shooting in Buffalo part of unfolding American tragedy: CNN

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The racist mass shooting at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, which left 10 black people dead and three others injured, marks "the latest chapter of a deepening moral and political crisis within the United States," as the shooter labeled himself a white supremacist, said an op-ed published by CNN on Monday.

The alleged Buffalo shooter, 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, has been charged with first degree murder and pleaded not guilty. Authorities have said Gendron's motivation was hate, said the article.

The attack was "a straight up racially motivated hate crime," CNN quoted Erie County Sheriff John C. Garcia as saying.

"Buffalo is heartbreaking precisely because this did not have to happen," said the article, blaming racism, voter suppression, flawed gun control and right-wing extremism for the raging violence.

"Right-wing extremism in our politics, media, and religious and democratic institutions provides oxygen for online hate communities that have now turned one time rhetorical fantasies into blood-soaked nightmares that harm us all," it noted.