Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting suspect charged with federal hate crimes

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged the alleged mass shooter who killed 10 Black residents at a Buffalo supermarket last month with 26 counts of hate crimes, which could carry the death penalty.

The suspect, identified as Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of shooting 13 people at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo on May 14. He arrived at the location heavily armed and wearing tactical gear. 

With an assault weapon, he shot four people who were outside of the store. Then, he entered the supermarket, exchanged fire with a security officer and shot nine more individuals. 

During the attack, the suspect shot at least 60 bullets, according to the complaint. Eleven of the victims were Black and two were White.

"Gendron's motive for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks," read a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors. 

The federal charges include ten counts of hate crimes and one count of use of firearms to commit murder for each of the people that were killed in the attack. 

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, Trini E. Ross, also charged Gendron with three counts of hate crime involving bodily injury and gun charges for the three individuals who were injured in the attack. 

Hate crime charges could carry the death penalty, which would be determined by a panel of Justice Department officials. Ross said during a press conference that the death penalty was “on the table.”

The federal hate crimes case is partly based on the documents federal authorities found when they searched Gendron’s home. The documents that were found on a laptop indicated that he had been planning the attack for several years but only “got serious” about it in January. The documents also laid out his radical and racist worldview that led to the attack. 

In his writings, Gendron allegedly referred to himself as a White man "seeking to protect and serve my community, my people, my culture, and my race." His goal was to kill “as many Blacks as possible.”

FBI agents also found a note left by Gendron in his home in which he apologized to his family for the shooting but stated that “he had to commit this attack… for the future of the White race.”

On June 1, a grand jury in New York handed Gendron a 25-count indictment, including domestic terrorism, weapons possession, ten counts of first-degree murder, and ten counts of second-degree murder. 

“No one in this country should have to live in fear that they will go to work or shop at a grocery store and will be attacked by someone who hates them because of the color of their skin,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.