WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2022) The 18-year-old white gunman charged with killing ten Africans Americans in a racist attack in Buffalo, New York pleaded not guilty to federal hate crimes charges on Monday, Fox news reported.
Payton Gendron was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on 27 counts of hate crimes and weapons charges related to the attack at a Buffalo supermarket in May. The Justice Department said Gendron, upon conviction, could face the death penalty, which the attorney general will decide whether to seek at a later time.
Gendron did not speak during the arraignment, according to the report. Assistant Federal Public Defender Sonya Zoghlin told the judge that the defense hopes the respective parties can resolve this case before trial, but she entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Gendron, the report added.
Family members of several victims were at the arraignment, including Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire Goodman was wounded in the attack, the report said.
Investigators say the shooter drove for more than three hours from his home in Conklin, New York to the Tops supermarket. The supermarket is a busy grocery store in the predominantly Black neighborhood in East Buffalo. His intent was to kill as many Black people as possible, prosecutors said, motivated by white supremacist beliefs and the desire to push back against what he believed to be the elimination of the white race.
The 27-count federal indictment contains special findings, including that Gendron engaged in prior planning to commit an act of terrorism and targeted senior citizens, specifically 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.
Prosecutors said Gendron wrote in his diary as far back as November about his desire to livestream the attack, practiced shooting from his car and surveilled the store two months before carrying out his plans. The body armor-clad shooter livestreamed the May 14 attack and was arrested outside of Tops supermarket by law enforcement after firing on shoppers and employees in the parking lot and inside the store.
