The young white man accused of killing ten black people in a supermarket in Buffalo appeared in court today, standing and silent, in a brief procedure attended by some relatives of the victims after a Grand Jury indicted him.
Payton Gendron, 18, was dressed in an orange jail uniform and wearing a face mask. As he was being led out of the room, someone yelled, “Payton, you’re a coward!” He is being held in jail without bail.
Assistant District Attorney Gary Hackbush said the first-degree murder indictment, which covers all 10 deaths, was filed Wednesday. Thirteen people were shot last Saturday at Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo.
Gendron live-streamed the attack from his helmet camera before turning himself in to police outside the supermarket. Shortly before, he posted hundreds of pages of message boards. online in which he detailed his plans for the attack and his racist motivation.
Investigators have been examining those documents, including a diary the attacker kept on the Discord chat platform. At his initial court appearance last week, Gendron’s court-appointed attorney pleaded “not guilty” on his behalf.
Five days after the shooting, authorities announced that evidence collection at the supermarket had been completed. The massacre was disturbing even in a nation that has grown accustomed to mass shootings. All but 2 of the 13 people shot were black. The texts on-line of Gendron suggest that he planned the assault after “falling in love” with white supremacist ideology.
Stephen Belongia, the top FBI agent in Buffalo, said agents were still working to piece together Gendron’s motives and how he came to his extremist views. “An important part of these types of incidents is telling the full story that may not be heard in a courtroom at a later date: understanding, to the extent possible, what this individual’s motives are, how he became radicalized, what was he reading, where was he reading it, who was he inspired by,” he told a news conference.
Gendron planned his attack in secret, without outside help, but Discord confirmed Wednesday that he sent an invitation to access his private writings to a small group of people about 30 minutes before he started shooting. Some accepted the invitation. It was unclear how many read what he had written or logged in to watch the shooting live. Nor if someone tried to alert law enforcement.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday authorized state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the social media platforms used by Gendron to determine if they were responsible for “providing a platform to plan and promote violence.” Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said social media users can also play a role by speaking up when they see people posting violent or threatening content.
Associated Press/OnCuba.
