A month after the Buffalo supermarket massacre that left 10 black residents dead, federal prosecutors charged the alleged gunman with 26 counts of hate crimes and weapons offences on Wednesday.
Some federal charges can carry the death penalty, although there is currently a federal ban on executions.
Crime News complaint until Attorney General Merrick Garland arrives in Buffalo on Wednesday to visit the site of the massacre – a Tops Friendly Market on the East Side of the city – to meet the victims’ families and appear with Trini E. RossUnited States Attorney for the Western District of New York.
All told, 13 people were shot in the head on the afternoon of May 14; three survivors.
The suspect, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, was a white supremacist who wore body armor and carried a semi-automatic rifle while streaming the attack. In the days leading up to the attack, the suspect also posted a lengthy piece expressing his belief in the so-called alternative theorya belief rooted in white supremacy that devised a plan to “replace” whites with people of color.
In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, an FBI agent said the suspect’s motives were “to prevent Blacks from displacing whites and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to do the same.” perform similar attacks”.
Authorities previously said he meticulously planned his massacre, traveling more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, NY, after choosing the East Side in Buffalo because of its dense population. Black skin. They also believe that he visited the Tops market before the attack to spy and wrote a series of private posts about his plans on Discord, a messaging platform, that he went public right before the attack.
Mr. Garland’s announcement to two weeks after the suspect committed the crime for 25 counts of murder and other state charges, including domestic terrorism fueled by hatred – supposedly for the first time 2020 law was leveled against a defendant.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is being held without bail.
The attack in Tops, and an even deadly massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, influenced both policy and politics in New York, including the passage of a series of new state laws to tighten restrictions on gun ownership, including raise the minimum age to buy a semi-automatic rifle for 21. Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has also issued a number of executive orders, including a to strengthen surveillance of online extremism of the State Police.
The Buffalo mass shooting also prompted Representative Chris Jacobs, a Republican who represents several of the city’s suburbs, to adopt a series of gun control measures, prompting members of his own party. he reacted violently. As a response, Mr. Jacobs said he will not run for a new term in November, criticized the unblinking opposition of many Republicans to any gun control measure.
