Massacre was race hate crime

THE gunman who killed 10 black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket has pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea yesterday in a courthouse two miles from the grocery store where he used a semi-automatic rifle and body armour to carry out a racist assault he hoped would help preserve white power in the US.

He pleaded guilty to all the charges including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.