On Wednesday, the white gunman who fatally shot 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket last year in a racially motivated attack with the goal to “kill as many blacks as possible” was sentenced on state murder charges to life in prison without parole. The shooter, Payton Gendron, 19, still faces dozens of charges on the federal level, for which he could face the death penalty if convicted.
Gendron pleaded guilty last November in Erie County Court to all 25 state charges against him, including 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, and a single count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate, for which he faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
Victims of the May 14, 2022, shooting at Tops Friendly Markets ranged from age 32 to 86 and included a retired police officer working as a security guard, a civil rights activist who had advocated for gun control, and a grandmother shopping for strawberry shortcake ingredients. Gendron shot 13 people in total. Two white victims survived, along with one Black victim. All 10 of the people killed were Black.
More than a dozen victims’ loved ones spoke during the hearing, held Wednesday morning. Relatives struggled through tears as they remembered their lost spouses, children, parents, aunts, cousins, and grandparents who were murdered in the shooting. People spoke of vengeance and redemption for themselves and Gendron. Some addressed Gendron with a measure of sympathy. Wayne Jones, the only child of Celestine Chaney, addressed Gendron as “bro,” and said that as a father, he felt for Gendron’s mother. He blamed the internet for radicalizing Gendron. “You’ve been brainwashed,” he said.
But at times, emotions in the courtroom overflowed. Barbara Massey, sister of victim Katherine Massey, excoriated Gendron, calling him a “punk-ass” and saying she’d like to strangle him with her own hands. At one point during her statement, a man who’d been standing beside her charged toward Gendron, causing marshals to rush Gendron out of the courtroom and halting the proceedings for several minutes.
Multiple speakers referenced scripture. “You will reap what you sow,” said Kimberly Salter, widow of Aaron Salter, Jr., the security guard whose shots fired at Gendron were ineffective against his body armor. When Michelle Spight, cousin of victim Margus Morrison, said, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord,” at least one person in the courtroom gallery applauded.
A defense attorney who spoke on behalf of Gendron’s team choked up as he addressed the court. “Our client committed these terrible crimes,” he said. “He is responsible for his actions, and he will be held accountable, and he will suffer the consequences for what he did.”
In a bombshell moment during a hearing already steeped in emotion, Gendron addressed the courtroom after the victims’ relatives had finished giving statements. “I’m very sorry for all the pain I forced the victims and their families to suffer through,” he said, reading off a piece of paper in an orange jumpsuit and wearing wire-rimmed glasses. “I’m very sorry for stealing the lives of your loved ones. I cannot express how much I regret all the decisions I made leading up to my actions on May 14th. I did a terrible thing that day. I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can’t take it back, but I wish I could. And I don’t want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did.”
As Gendron finished speaking, a woman in the gallery began screaming. “You don’t mean none of that shit,” she said, and continued screaming in anguish as her voice faded from the courtroom and she was, presumably, escorted out.
Prosecutors have argued Gendron’s attack at Tops Friendly Markets was motivated by his racism towards Black people. As evidence, they have cited Gendron’s social media posts and a racist manifesto he uploaded before carrying out the shooting, where he said he’d targeted Tops because it was in a zip code with the highest percentage of Black people near his hometown. Gendron’s AR-15 also had phrases written on it, including “Here’s your reparations!” “The Great Replacement,” racial slurs, and the names of other mass shooters.
The “great replacement” is a baseless conspiracy theory that’s been promoted in recent years by the far-right that white people are facing extinction and are being “replaced” by immigrants and people of color. The Buffalo shooting came as the latest in a string of high-profile attacks motivated by similar extremist ideals in places like El Paso, where a shooter targeting immigrants killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, and Pittsburgh, where, in 2018, a gunman killed 11 people in the Tree of Life synagogue.
The shooting also highlighted issues of food inequality that made the market a hub in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Matsen Park. The Tops Gendron targeted had been a hard-won source of fresh groceries for the predominantly Black neighborhood of Matsen Park in a city where Black residents are six times more likely than white residents to live in an area without access to a grocery store, according to reporting by CNN Business. The 2001 announcement of Tops’ arrival came after more than a decade of work by community activists who sought to correct food inequities on Buffalo’s East Side by bringing a major grocery store to the area.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron, who was 18 at the time, drove his Ford Taurus 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, charging documents in his federal case allege. He stepped out of his car wearing camouflage clothing, a helmet, body armor, and carrying a loaded AR-15 rifle with extra magazines. Strapped to his helmet was a GoPro camera. He livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch.
Gendron started firing in the parking lot, killing three people before he even entered the building — each of them Black. Inside, he opened fire. At one point, he aimed his rifle at a white store employee who had been shot in the leg during the hail of gunfire. Instead of killing him, Gendron allegedly said, “Sorry,” before moving on.
During the attack, many customers and employees ran to the rear of the store. Some escaped through a back door while others took shelter in a stock room, a conference room, a freezer, and a dairy cooler. When police confronted Gendron at the front of the store, he reportedly pointed his rifle at his own throat before dropping to his knees, at which point officers handcuffed him.
In Gendron’s house, police found a note from Gendron, apologizing to his parents for carrying out the “attack,” but saying that he “had to” do it “for the future of the white race.” Gendron’s manifesto, cited in an affidavit supporting the federal charges, lionized himself as a “white man seeking to protect and serve my community,” and stated the chilling goals of the attack: “Kill as many blacks as possible,” “Avoid dying,” and “Spread ideals.”
Following the attack, multiple political figures on the far right rushed to claim it was a “false flag.” MAGA white nationalist Nick Fuentes took to Telegram the day of the shooting, posting “New false flag,” with a link to a breaking news story about the incident. Arizona state senator and Oath Keepers member Wendy Rogers conspiratorially suggested Gendron was a government agent, posting “Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo,” on Telegram. Her comment prompted the Arizona State Senate to launch an ethics investigation that stagnated within a month without reaching a conclusion.
Meanwhile, Laura Loomer took the opportunity on May 14 to speak about “anti-white racism.” “Being worried about replacement theory is also not a radical stance,” Loomer wrote on Telegram. “The war on White people is VERY REAL.”
Gendron also faces federal hate crimes charges related to the racist motivation for his attack. In the federal case, he is charged with 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death, 3 counts of hate crime involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence, and 3 counts of use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. He has pleaded not guilt. If convicted, Gendron could face the death penalty.