Buffalo Shooting Suspect to Face Murder and Terrorism Charges - The New York Times

A 25-count indictment includes both first-degree murder charges and second-degree murder charges as hate crimes, as well as a single count of domestic terrorism.

The man accused of carrying out a racist shooting at a Buffalo supermarket has been indicted by a grand jury on 25 counts, including murder, domestic terrorism and other charges in relation to the May 14 massacre, which left 10 Black residents dead.

The suspect, Payton Gendron, 18, was arrested shortly after the shooting had stopped and he had surrendered to the police. He is scheduled to appear on Thursday afternoon in an Erie County court to be arraigned, according to the county district attorney, John J. Flynn.

The 25-count indictment includes 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder charges as hate crimes, as well as three counts of attempted murder as a hate crime and a single count of criminal possession of a weapon.

The indictment’s first count — domestic terrorism motivated by hate — carries a penalty of life imprisonment without parole; it alleges that Mr. Gendron acted “because of the perceived race and/or color of such person or persons” injured and killed in the attack.

Mr. Gendron has pleaded not guilty in previous court appearances. He could also face additional federal charges, officials have said.

Mr. Gendron, an avowed white supremacist, is accused of shooting 13 people, almost all of them Black, at a Tops supermarket in a largely Black section of Buffalo, New York’s second largest city. Three of those shot on that Saturday afternoon survived the attack, which was one of the worst racist massacres in recent American history.

In the months before the shooting, Mr. Gendron had posted comments in a private diary on the messaging site Discord, riddled with racist writings as well as detailed plans for an attack in Buffalo. He included pictures of himself posing with the assault-style weapon that officials say he used to carry out the shooting.

Those writings were shared with a small group of people just before the attack, which Mr. Gendron also broadcast on Twitch, a livestreaming site popular with gamers.

Mr. Gendron’s attack came just 10 days before another devastating mass shooting, this one at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., which left 21 people dead, including 19 children. The gunman in that shooting, Salvador Ramos, also 18, died during the attack.

Authorities believe Mr. Gendron traveled more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, N.Y., in the state’s Southern Tier, to commit his attack, choosing the East Side of Buffalo because of its large number of Black residents.

In a lengthy rant that Mr. Gendron, who is white, is believed to have written and posted online in the days before the attack, he expressed admiration for other gunmen in racist attacks and repeated references to a white supremacist ideology known as replacement theory, which imagines a sinister scheme to “replace” white Americans with immigrants or people of color.

Mr. Gendron’s postings on Discord also indicate that he was able to sidestep a New York state statute — known as a “red flag” law — designed to bar people believed to be dangerous from possessing firearms. In 2021, Mr. Gendron had been picked up by the state police and taken for a mental health evaluation at a hospital after indicating on a school project that he wanted to commit a “murder-suicide.”

He was released, however, after telling officials he was only joking, something he said was a lie in a Discord posting.

“It was not a joke,” he wrote on Discord. “I wrote that down because that’s what I was planning to do.”

Since the Buffalo shooting, and the horror in Uvalde, lawmakers in Albany have moved to propose a series of new measures to tighten the state’s already tough gun laws, including raising the age to 21 for ownership of a semiautomatic rifle. Those bills are expected to pass the Democrat-dominated Legislature this week.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had already announced a pair of executive orders related to the Buffalo attack, including one that required the State Police to seek red-flag orders from judges “whenever they have probable cause” that someone may be a danger to themselves or others. Ms. Hochul also ordered the police “to track domestic violent extremism through social media,” like the channels Mr. Gendron is believed to have used.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

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