BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Federal prosecutors announced Friday their intention to seek the death penalty for Payton Gendron, the man responsible for the racially motivated shooting at a Tops store in Buffalo two years ago that resulted in the deaths of 10 Black people. This decision was revealed in a court filing.
Relatives of the victims have been summoned to a federal court for a “substantial update” in the case against the shooter, as confirmed by their attorney, Terrence Connors.
Gendron, 20, is currently serving multiple life sentences with no chance of parole after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. However, the state of New York does not have capital punishment, which makes executions possible in federal cases.
Attorneys representing Gendron have expressed their client’s willingness to plead guilty in the federal case if prosecutors agree not to seek the death penalty. However, the Justice Department’s capital case committee issued its recommendation in the fall of 2023, with the recommendation remaining undisclosed to the public.
The families of those killed at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo’s largely Black East Side have been anxiously awaiting whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty against Gendron, who is charged in a federal indictment with hate crimes and weapons charges. The victims, whose ages ranged from 32 to 86, included a church deacon, the store’s security guard, a man shopping for a birthday cake, a grandmother of nine, and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner.
During the attack, Gendron was wearing bullet-resistant armor and a helmet equipped with a livestreaming camera as he carried out the shooting with a semiautomatic rifle. The weapon, which had been legally purchased, was modified to allow Gendron to load it with illegal high-capacity magazines.
The meeting between the Department of Justice representatives and Gendron’s victims is scheduled to take place ahead of a previously planned afternoon status conference. Attorneys for Gendron and his parents, as well as the U.S. attorney’s office in Buffalo, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
The death penalty recommendation, if pursued, is a significant development in the case against Gendron and will likely be met with mixed emotions by the victims’ families and the community.