Buffalo mass murder suspect indicted by grand jury
BUFFALO: A New York grand jury has indicted the 18-year-old white man accused of killing 10 people in a livestreamed shooting at a supermarket in a black neighbourhood in Buffalo, prosecutors said at a brief court hearing.
Buffalo City Court Judge Craig Hannah adjourned the hearing on Thursday after a few minutes and scheduled the suspect, Payton Gendron, to appear again on June 9.
He will remain in custody without bond.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said the grand jury had not yet completed an investigation into whether prosecutors had enough evidence to bring Gendron to trial on more charges.
The defendant for now stands charged with a single count of first-degree murder in the shooting of 13 people – 11 of them black – at a Tops Friendly Markets store on May 14. Gendron faces life in prison without parole if convicted on the murder charge.
It was Gendron’s second court appearance since his arrest outside the supermarket, where authorities said he opened fire with a semi-automatic, assault-style rifle.
As he was escorted into the courtroom with relatives of some of the victims watching, someone in the courtroom gallery shouted, “Hey, you’re a coward!”
The rampage, which authorities said Gendron had carefully planned with an eye toward killing as many black people as he could, has touched a nerve in a country now accustomed to mass shootings.
With the gunman livestreaming the attack and drawing inspiration from racist screeds from previous killers found online, it has revived a national debate about guns, domestic terrorism, hate and the Internet’s role in spreading it.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday authorised the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, to investigate social media platforms used by Gendron to determine if they were liable for “providing a platform to plan and promote violence”.
In Buffalo on Thursday, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said social media users could also play a role by speaking up when they see people posting violent or threatening content.
“You need to out these people,” he said. “Expose those putting out those types of extreme views and let us root them out.”