Buffalo supermarket gunman indicted on terror, hate charge

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white man accused of killing 10 Black people 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 compulsory sentence of life in prison.

Payton Gendron is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the new, 25-count indictment, which builds on a previous murder charge 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 in the course of the assault, however survived, and with utilizing a weapon while committing a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had told a decide Might 20 the grand jury had voted to indict Gendron but did not disclose expenses, saying proceedings had been ongoing.

Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker, said he had not seen the indictment and couldn't comment, including that prosecution and defense attorneys have been barred by a decide from discussing the case publicly.

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

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

“This man was motivated by hate in opposition to people he by no means met for no reason other than the color of their pores and skin,” stated Buffalo lawyer John Elmore, who represents the families of victims Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72, and Andre Mackniel, 53. Elmore mentioned he hoped for a conviction on each count.

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

The law expanded on a earlier home terrorism statute handed after the 9/11 terrorist attack that was largely envisioned as a technique to go after international extremism.

Prosecutors said Gendron drove about three hours to Buffalo from his house in Conklin, New York, aspiring to kill as many Black folks as potential. Shortly earlier than 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 not too long ago purchased, opened fire on Saturday afternoon customers at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo.

Murder fees were filed for every of the victims, who ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included eight customers, the shop safety guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the shop with their groceries.

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

Mackniel was within the store to purchase a birthday cake for his 3-year-old. Massey was a neighborhood activist who had championed gun management and fought in opposition to racism, Elmore stated.

“To have her life taken away by a white supremacist extremist by the hands of a weapon of mass destruction is extraordinarily upsetting to me,” he stated. He is a part of a staff of attorneys exploring potential authorized motion in opposition to the manufacturers 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 seek out justice for the Massey household, for the Mackniel household and all these others that had been affected by this tragedy,” Elmore mentioned.

Federal authorities also are investigating the potential of hate crime prices against Gendron, who apparently detailed his plans and his racist motivation in a whole lot of pages of writings he posted on-line shortly before the capturing.

Amanda Drury, who misplaced her 32-year-old sister, Roberta Drury, said she is leaving it to the authorized system to say what fees are applicable within the case.

“I’m going to proceed with my trust in the justice system,” she stated.

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