Buffalo supermarket gunman will face the death penalty in federal hate crimes case

Payton Gendron, center, listens in court last February as he is sentenced to life in prison without parole for the deadly 2022 supermarket attack in Buffalo, N.Y. Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket, they said in a court filing Friday. New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. In a notice announcing the decision to seek the death penalty, Trini Ross, the U.S. attorney for western New York, wrote that Gendron had selected the supermarket “in order to maximize the number of Black victims.” The notice cited a range of factors for the decision, including the substantial planning leading to the shooting and the decision to target at least one victim who was “particularly vulnerable due to old age and infirmity.” Relatives of the victims had expressed mixed views on whether they thought federal prosecutors should pursue the death penalty. World & Nation Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect indicted on terror and hate charge The white man accused of killing 10 Black people in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket has been indicted by a grand jury on a state domestic terrorism and hate crime charge that would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison.