BUFFALO, N.Y. – Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old from Conklin, has pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in connection to the 2022 attack on a grocery store in Buffalo. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The decision to pursue the death penalty was announced by Trini Ross, the US attorney for western New York. The attack at the grocery store was allegedly chosen by Gendron to maximize the number of Black victims. The prosecution listed a range of criteria for the decision, including the extensive preparation leading up to the shooting and the targeting of at least one particularly vulnerable victim due to old age and infirmity.
On May 14, 2022, Gendron drove over 200 miles from his hometown to the grocery store, where he wore thick body armor and carried an AR-15 assault rifle. Before entering the store, he shot four people in the parking lot, three of whom died as a result of their injuries.
During the two-minute assault, Gendron broadcast the incident live on Twitch while wearing a helmet equipped with a camera. The victims included eight customers, the store security officer, and a church deacon who assisted customers, with their ages ranging from 32 to 86. Three people were injured but managed to survive the attack.
The US has been grappling with a rise in mass shootings and excessive gun violence, leading to repeated protests for stricter gun laws. The decision to pursue the death penalty in Gendron’s case comes at a time when there has been a decrease in federal death penalty prosecutions under the Biden administration.
On the matter of federal executions, Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a suspension while reviews of the processes were conducted in 2021. Amid these developments, the Justice Department allowed the prosecution of two cases to continue with the death penalty and ceased pursuit of the death penalty in over twenty cases.
In light of these events, the issue of gun violence and the use of the death penalty continues to be a topic of debate and concern across the country.