ALBANY — After 10 African American people were shot to death at a Buffalo supermarket May 14, investigators found evidence suggesting the suspect may have been inspired by a racist shooting rampage in New Zealand and was also influenced by a white supremacist ideology.

Just a year earlier, authorities noted, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, the man charged in the massacre, had a brush with police after making allegedly threatening comments at the Broome County school he attended at the time. That incident led to him getting a mental-health checkup.

But the state’s Red Flag law was not invoked, and Gendron was able to subsequently purchase the firearms that he allegedly used to target Black people in Buffalo, about a three-hour drive from his rural hometown.

Now, state officials are attempting to expand a program launched three years ago by Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter, using a community-based partnership of social service agencies, schools, law enforcement and mental health officials to find ways to intervene in the lives of people who have signaled they may do harm to others.

In the aftermath of the rampage at the Tops market in Buffalo, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order encouraging New York counties to develop their own domestic terrorism prevention plans.

The state is also providing $10 million to assist in an effort that law enforcement executives and Stephen Acquario, director of the New York State Association of Counties, say is welcome due to the rising threat of domestic terrorism.

“This is a public safety role that county leaders across the state are taking seriously, and these resources will help us continue to develop plans to protect communities from incidents of domestic terror and active shooters,” Acquario told CNHI.

Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond said Baxter’s innovative approach to countering domestic terrorism and targeted mass shootings is worthy of emulation as it is based on cooperation between various community partners, including school officials, as well as regular communication and monitoring any potential threats closely as they develop.

“One of the common denominators with these incidents is that someone knew something about these potentially dangerous individuals — but never said anything,” DuMond said.

Employers, both public and private, need to be involved in such efforts, as they could potentially share information about disgruntled individuals who threatened retaliation from being let go from their jobs, the sheriff noted.

“We can then take a look at the situation, get in front of it and come up with a plan for addressing it, and hopefully, prevent something from happening,” DuMond said.

In Plattsburgh, Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said he can foresee his county crafting a domestic terrorism response plan using a wide cross-section of agencies, from social services, to local, state and federal law enforcement involved in providing security at the New York/Quebec international border.

Favro recalled that Plattsburgh Police Chief Nathan York pointed out that cooperation from the sheriff’s department, State Police and Plattsburgh Police played a key role in the investigation that led to the arrest of Vincent M. Abrams of Champlain in the June 4 stabbing death of Melissa Myers, 40, of Plattsburgh.

As for assembling a terrorism prevention pan for Clinton County, Favro said, “I think all the players need to be at the table. This is going to take some brainstorming and communication.” He said he has already had discussions about the effort with the county’s director of emergency services, Eric Day.

Both the State Police and the Sheriff’s Department have benefited from what Favro called a cooperative relationship, with the 911 center now dispatching incident calls to the police unit that is closest to the location of the incident.

The public has benefitted as response times have been optimized, he said.

The state’s plan calls for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to establish a unit within its Office of Counter Terrorism that is focused on preventing domestic terrorism.

According to data tracked by the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacists killed more people in the United States in 2021 than any other type of extremists.

The organization has called on Congress and state legislatures to channel grants for research and services to help leaders gain a better understanding of extremist hate and to fund programming aimed at countering the threats of violence.