Grand jury indicts suspect in shooting at market in Buffalo
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The white man accused of killing 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo appeared in court Thursday, standing silently during a brief proceeding attended by some relatives of the victims after a grand jury indicted him.
Payton Gendron, 18, wore an orange jail uniform, a mask and handcuffs. As he was led out, someone shouted “Payton, you’re a coward!” from the gallery.
At his initial court appearance last week, Gendron’s court-appointed lawyer entered a plea of “not guilty.” Gendron is being held in jail without bail and is due back in court June 9.
Assistant District Attorney Gary Hackbush said the first-degree murder indictment, which covers all 10 deaths, was handed up Wednesday.
Thirteen people were shot Saturday at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo. Authorities are continuing to investigate the possibility of hate crime and terrorism charges.
Also Thursday, The nation’s oldest civil rights organization said it will propose a sweeping plan meant to protect Black Americans from white supremacist violence.
In a plan first shared with The Associated Press, the NAACP suggests a policy approach to stopping future acts of anti-Black domestic terrorism that involves law enforcement, business regulation and gun control. The proposal points to measures that could be taken up immediately by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
The plan calls for holding accountable any corporation that is complicit in the spread of bigotry and racism through news media and on social platforms, for enacting gun violence prevention measures that keep mass-casualty weapons out of the hands of would-be assailants and for reforming police practices so Black Americans experience the same de-escalation tactics often used to peacefully apprehend murderous white supremacists.
Gendron livestreamed the attack from a helmet camera before surrendering to police outside the grocery store.
Shortly before the attack, he posted hundreds of pages of writings to online discussion groups where he detailed his plans for the assault and his racist motivation.
Investigators have been examining those documents, which included a private diary he kept on the chat platform Discord.
Gendron’s online writings said he planned the assault after becoming infatuated with white supremacist ideology he encountered online.
The diary said Gendron planned his attack in secret, with no outside help, but Discord confirmed Wednesday that an invitation to access his private writings was sent to a small group of people about 30 minutes before the assault began.
Some of them accepted the invitation. It was unclear how many read what he had written or logged on to view the assault live. It also wasn’t clear whether anyone tried to alert law enforcement.