Buffalo mass shooting: Gunman charged with federal hate crimes
Global News
Payton Gendron was already facing a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted on previously filed state charges in the May 14 rampage.
The white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday with federal hate crimes and could face the death penalty.
The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Payton Gendron coincided with a visit to Buffalo by Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general was expected to address the federal charges and meet with the families of the people who were killed.
Garland placed a bouquet of white flowers tied with a yellow ribbon at a memorial to the victims outside the store, which has been shuttered and undergoing renovations since the attack.
Gendron was already facing a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted on previously filed state charges in the May 14 rampage.
The attack, at Tops Friendly Market, also left three survivors _ one Black, two white. Ballistics evidence indicated that Gendron fired approximately 60 shots during the attack, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
Gendron’s radical, racist worldview and extensive preparation for the attack were laid out in documents he apparently authored and posted online shortly before authorities say he started shooting.
FBI agents executing a search warrant at Gendron’s home the day after the shooting found a note in which he apologized to his family for the shooting and stated that he “had to commit this attack” because he cares “for the future of the White race,” according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
Gendron signed the note and addressed it to his family, the affidavit said.
