Charged in Buffalo, NY, mass shooting charged with terrorism, first degree murder
The 18-year-old white man accused of fatally shooting 10 black people at a Buffalo, NY supermarket, on Wednesday was charged by a grand jury with hate crime and 10 counts of first-degree murder.
Payton Gendron, who has been in custody since the May 14 shooting, is scheduled to be heard on Thursday in Erie County Court.
The 25-count indictment also includes counts of murder and attempted murder as a hate crime and possession of a weapon.
Gendron had previously been charged with one count of first-degree murder in the shooting, which also left three people injured. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors told a judge on May 20 that the grand jury voted to convict Gendron but did not release the charges, saying proceedings were ongoing.
Domestic Terrorism alleges Gendron killed “out of awareness of the race and/or color of skin” of his victims.
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo proposed legislation to combat terrorist hate crimes in the country in August 2019, following the mass shooting of Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The measure, known as the “Josef Neumann Criminal Hate Domestic Terrorism Act” following an attack on a rabbi’s home in Munsey, NY, was signed into law on April 3, 2020 and has effective November 1, 2020.
Allegations – acts of domestic terrorism motivated by hatred in the first degree – can be punished with a life sentence without parole.
The attack was live
Each of the victims has been charged with murder, who ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included eight shoppers, a store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers. to and from the store with their groceries.
The gunman, carrying a recently purchased AR-15-style rifle, opened fire on Saturday afternoon to the only supermarket shoppers in the predominantly Black neighborhood.
US President Joe Biden visited Buffalo, NY, on Tuesday to pay his respects to the victims of a racially motivated mass shooting, calling the attack ‘domestic terrorism’ and called on Americans to deny white supremacy.
The shooting, followed 10 days later by a mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, has sparked a national debate about gun control and ownership. violent extremism.
Federal authorities are also investigating possible hate crimes charges against Gendron, who is said to have detailed his racist plans and motives in hundreds of pages of writing he wrote. posted online shortly before the shooting happened. The attack was streamed live from a helmet-mounted camera.
Gendron drove about three hours from his home in Conklin, NY, with the intention of killing as many black people as possible, investigators allege.
His attorney, Brian Parker, said he had not seen the indictment and was unable to comment, adding that prosecution and defense attorneys had been barred from discussing the case publicly by the judge.
