Buffalo Mass Shooting Suspect Charged With Federal Hate Crimes

The Department of Justice has filed multiple federal hate crime charges against the alleged Buffalo mass shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron.

Prosecutors within the Western District of New York charged Gendron with 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses. Some of these charges carry the possibility of the death penalty, per CBS.

According to the release by the DOJ, the criminal complaint alleges that at 2:30 p.m. on May 14, Gendron entered the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo with the intention to kill Black people. The shooting, which Gendron streamed live on the internet, resulted in the deaths of 10 Black people and injuries of one Black person and injuries to two Caucasian people.

Authorities also said that Gendron’s motivation for the shooting was “to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race” through a lengthy manifesto he’d written. Subsequent investigation revealed he drove to Tops and scouted out the location just before the attack.

Attorney General Merrick Garland visited a makeshift memorial for the victims on Wednesday, the same day the federal charges were released.

If convicted, Gendron would be eligible for the death penalty, though there is currently a moratorium on federal executions. It has not been revealed if Gendron has entered a plea for his federal charges.