Suspect charged with federal hate crimes
Some carry possibility of death penalty if Justice Department decides to pursue it
The suspect in the Buffalo, New York, massacre that left 10 Black residents dead was charged on Wednesday with federal hate crimes and weapons violations, in a complaint that included new details about the depth of his racist hatred.
Although there is currently a moratorium on federal executions, some of the federal charges against the gunman could carry the death penalty if the Justice Department decided to seek it.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland did not rule out that possibility.
“The Justice Department has a series of procedures it follows,” he said during a news conference in Buffalo. He added that the families of victims and survivors of the shooting, some of whom he visited on his trip to the city, “would be consulted.”
Calling the massacre a “horrific attack” designed to instill terror and long-term trauma, Garland, and other federal officials at the news conference, outlined the suspect’s planning of the mass shooting, saying that the suspect had intended to kill as many Black people as possible.
“Hate brings immediate devastation,” Garland said. “And it inflicts lasting fear.”
The suspect, Payton Gendron, 18, is an avowed white supremacist. During the shooting, which was livestreamed, the suspect wore camouflage and body armor and carried a semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle, according to authorities. All told, 13 people were shot at Tops Friendly Market on the afternoon of May 14; three survived.
Before the attack, authorities said, the suspect had posted a rant on Discord, a chat application, outlining his belief in so-called replacement theory, a white supremacist ideology that posits a nefarious scheme to “replace” white people with people of color.
On Wednesday, Garland said the suspect believed in “the vile theory that only people like him belong in this country,” and noted the extent of the violence that day, which included some 60 shots fired inside the supermarket.
“No one in this country should have to live in fear that they will go to work or shop at the grocery store and will be attacked by someone who hates them because of the color of their skin,” Garland said. “No one in this country should have to bury a loved one because of such hate.”
In an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint filed on Wednesday, an FBI agent, Christopher J. Dlugokinski, said the suspect’s motive was “to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks.”
In the news conference, Garland also said that the accused gunman apologized to a white employee that he had shot, before continuing to shoot others inside the market.
State authorities have previously said that the suspect had carefully planned his massacre, traveling more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, after choosing the East Side neighborhood in Buffalo because of its large number of Black residents.
In addition to the online diatribe published before the attack, authorities also said that the suspect wrote a series of private posts on Discord about his plans, which he made public shortly before the shooting and which were rife with racist ramblings. On the morning of the attack, the suspect left a note in his bedroom saying he “had to commit this attack” because he cares “for the future of the White race,” according to the federal complaint, which contained new details about the suspect’s state of mind.
The hate crime charges carry the possibility of the death penalty, which would be determined by Garland after reviewing deliberations by Justice Department officials.