Thematic Analysis of the Buffalo Shooter’s Manifesto (2024)

Undergraduates: Okoli Laila, Virginia Llewellyn

Faculty Advisor: Michael Waltman
Department: Communication Studies Department

---

Payton Gendron, better known as the Buffalo Shooter, traveled to a Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York and killed 10 black people in 2022. This research aims to analyze the themes present in Gendron’s manifesto that he wrote in the months before his attack. The goal of this research is to generate codes and definitions from the manifesto that may be helpful in future analyses of texts produced by domestic extremists and terrorists. Thus far, we have generated five relevant codes: Replacement Theory, White Genocide, Internet, Lone Wolfism, and Persuasive Tactics.