Buffalo grocery store gunman indicted on terror, hate charge

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white man accused of killing 10 Black individuals in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on a state home terrorism and hate crime charge that may carry a mandatory sentence of life in jail.

Payton Gendron is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the new, 25-count indictment, which builds on a earlier homicide cost rapidly prepared in the hours after the Could 14 shooting.

The 18-year-old has now additionally been charged with the attempted murders of three people who have been shot through the assault, however survived, and with using a weapon whereas committing a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had informed a judge Might 20 the grand jury had voted to indict Gendron however did not disclose fees, saying proceedings have been ongoing.

Gendron’s attorney, Brian Parker, mentioned he had not seen the indictment and couldn't comment, including that prosecution and protection attorneys have been barred by a judge from discussing the case publicly.

The horrific nature of the crime and variety of victims was more likely to already assure a life sentence if Gendron is convicted. New York has no dying penalty. But including a state terrorism cost may carry additional emotional resonance and assist authorities send a message about violent extremism.

The domestic terrorism charge — Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate within the First Degree — accuses Gendron of killing “because of the perceived race and/or coloration” of his victims.

“This man was motivated by hate in opposition to folks he never met for no motive aside from the colour of their pores and skin,” mentioned Buffalo lawyer John Elmore, who represents the families of victims Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72, and Andre Mackniel, 53. Elmore said he hoped for a conviction on every rely.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the domestic terrorism hate crime legislation in August 2019, within the wake of a mass taking pictures focusing on Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas. The measure, dubbed the “Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Home Terrorism Act” after an attack at a rabbi’s residence in Munsey, New York, was signed into legislation on April 3, 2020, and took effect Nov. 1, 2020.

The regulation expanded on a previous home terrorism statute passed after the 9/11 terrorist assault that was largely envisioned as a option to go after international extremism.

Prosecutors stated Gendron drove about three hours to Buffalo from his house in Conklin, New York, intending to kill as many Black people as doable. Shortly before the assault he posted paperwork that outlined his white supremacist views and revealed he had been planning the assault for months.

The gunman, carrying an AR-15-style rifle he had lately purchased, opened fire on Saturday afternoon buyers at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo.

Murder expenses have been filed for every of the victims, who ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included eight customers, the shop security guard and a church deacon who drove consumers to and from the shop with their groceries.

The capturing, adopted 10 days later by a mass capturing that killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers inside a Uvalde, Texas, elementary college, has renewed a national debate about gun control.

Mackniel was in the store to buy a birthday cake for his 3-year-old. Massey was a neighborhood activist who had championed gun control and fought towards racism, Elmore said.

“To have her life taken away by a white supremacist extremist at the hands of a weapon of mass destruction is extraordinarily upsetting to me,” he stated. He is part of a staff of attorneys exploring potential legal motion in opposition to the producers of the weapon and body armor utilized by the gunman, as well as social media platforms.

The assault was livestreamed from a helmet-mounted camera.

“Somehow we’re going to find justice for the Massey family, for the Mackniel family and all those others that had been affected by this tragedy,” Elmore said.

Federal authorities also are investigating the opportunity of hate crime costs against Gendron, who apparently detailed his plans and his racist motivation in hundreds of pages of writings he posted online shortly earlier than the capturing.

Amanda Drury, who misplaced her 32-year-old sister, Roberta Drury, mentioned she is leaving it to the legal system to say what charges are appropriate within the case.

“I’m going to proceed with my belief within the justice system,” she mentioned.

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Related Press writers Michael Sisak and Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.