The White gunman charged with killing 10 Black individuals in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store pleaded not responsible Monday to federal hate crime costs that could possibly be punishable by the death penalty. Payton Gendron was indicted final week on hate crimes and weapons counts.
The plea was entered in court by the defendant’s attorney, who stated she hoped to resolve the case earlier than trial. Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackles, the defendant was silent in the course of the temporary arraignment.
The 27-count federal indictment accommodates particular findings, together with that the defendant engaged in substantial planning to commit an act of terrorism and took goal at susceptible older individuals — particularly 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, 77-year-old Pearl Young, 72-year-old Katherine Massey, 67-year-old Heyward Patterson and 65-year-old Celestine Chaney.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who halted federal executions final yr, has not dominated out looking for the death penalty in opposition to the defendant. Garland visited the scene of the bloodbath and visited with victims’ households final month.
The Justice Department stated a call on whether or not to hunt the death penalty in opposition to the defendant, who turned 19 in June, would come later.
Joshua Bessex / AP
The defendant, who livestreamed the May 14 assault, was arrested simply outdoors the doorway of the Tops Friendly Supermarket after donning physique armor and opening hearth on weekend buyers and workers in the parking zone and inside, authorities stated. Three individuals had been wounded.
“We all know he’s guilty. We saw what he did,” Zeneta Everhart stated after the court continuing. Her son, Zaire Goodman, was wounded in the assault. “The world saw what he did. He posted what he did.”
The retailer reopened to the general public final week, two months after the assault.
Investigators say the suspected shooter drove for greater than three hours from his dwelling in Conklin, New York, to a busy grocery retailer chosen for its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood, with the intent of killing as many Black individuals as potential. He was motivated, they stated, by white supremacist beliefs which he described in on-line diary entries.
The 19-year-old wrote as far again as November about staging a livestreamed assault, practiced shooting from his automobile and did reconnaissance on the shop two months earlier than allegedly finishing up the plans, in accordance with the writings.
He arrived on the retailer sporting camouflage clothes and a tactical-style helmet fitted with a video digicam, authorities stated.
The indictment seeks the forfeiture of an in depth arsenal recovered from the defendant’s automobile and residential. It consists of the Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting and a 12-gauge loaded shotgun and loaded bolt-action rifle and ammunition taken from the automobile. Authorities seized further ammunition and firearms equipment from his dwelling.
The federal indictment costs the defendant with 10 counts of hate crimes ensuing in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an try and kill three individuals and one other hate crime rely alleging he tried to kill different Black individuals in and across the retailer. It additionally consists of 13 counts of utilizing a firearm in a hate crime.
The defendant additionally faces a parallel state prosecution on costs together with hate-motivated home terrorism, homicide and tried homicide as a hate crime. The home terrorism hate crime cost carries an automated life sentence. He has pleaded not responsible to these costs as effectively.
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