Buffalo supermarket gunman indicted on terror, hate cost

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white man accused of killing 10 Black individuals in a racist assault on a Buffalo grocery store was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on a state home terrorism and hate crime cost 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 earlier homicide charge unexpectedly ready in the hours after the Could 14 taking pictures.

The 18-year-old has now also been charged with the tried murders of three people who had been shot in the course of the assault, but survived, and with using a weapon while committing a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors had instructed a judge May 20 the grand jury had voted to indict Gendron but didn't disclose charges, saying proceedings were ongoing.

Gendron’s attorney, Brian Parker, said he had not seen the indictment and could not remark, 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 death penalty. But adding a state terrorism cost may carry further emotional resonance and assist authorities send a message about violent extremism.

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

“This man was motivated by hate in opposition to individuals he by no means met for no cause aside from the color of their pores and skin,” said Buffalo lawyer John Elmore, who represents the families of victims Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72, and Andre Mackniel, 53. Elmore stated he hoped for a conviction on each rely.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the domestic terrorism hate crime law 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 regulation on April 3, 2020, and took impact Nov. 1, 2020.

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

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

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

Homicide prices have been filed for each 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 shooting, followed 10 days later by a mass taking pictures that killed 19 children and two teachers inside a Uvalde, Texas, elementary faculty, has renewed a nationwide debate about gun control.

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

“To have her life taken away by a white supremacist extremist at the hands of a weapon of mass destruction is extremely upsetting to me,” he mentioned. He is part of a crew of attorneys exploring potential legal action in opposition to the manufacturers of the weapon and physique armor used by the gunman, as well as social media platforms.

The attack was livestreamed from a helmet-mounted digicam.

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

Federal authorities also are investigating the potential for hate crime prices against Gendron, who apparently detailed his plans and his racist motivation in lots of of pages of writings he posted on-line shortly earlier than the taking pictures.

Amanda Drury, who lost her 32-year-old sister, Roberta Drury, said she is leaving it to the authorized system to say what charges are acceptable in the case.

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

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