Buffalo massacre suspect appears in court and will be held without bail
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The accused gunman in Saturday’s massacre at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo appeared in court Thursday morning, with some family members of the 10 people he is accused of killing on hand for the proceedings.
An Erie County Court judge adjourned the hearing until June 9, largely a procedural step in what is likely to be a closely watched case. Erie County assistant district attorney Gary Hackbush said the first-degree murder indictment against the suspect, Payton Gendron, which covers all 10 deaths, was handed up Wednesday.
Gendron, 18, has pleaded not guilty, and appeared briefly in the courtroom, wearing an orange jumpsuit, amid heavy security. He faces life in prison if convicted and continues to be held without bail, Flynn said.
Authorities have described Gendron as an avowed racist who used an assault-style weapon to carry out an attack at a Tops grocery store in a predominantly Black section of Buffalo last weekend. Gendron is white, and all 10 people who died in the attack were Black.
Several victims’ family members came to watch the hearing but did not speak to reporters.
The hearing came even as grieving families began to prepare for funerals in the coming days, and elected officials and political leaders continued to promise changes to laws and other policies to counter the rise of white supremacy and gun violence.
On Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a series of measures intended to strengthen New York’s gun laws, as well as requesting that state Attorney General Letitia James investigate the social media platforms where the suspect was radicalized, posted racist writings and briefly streamed his attack.
In addition to the 10 people killed in the shooting, three others were injured. Authorities say Gendron drove about 200 miles to Buffalo from his home in Conklin, N.Y., to commit the shooting, after months of outlining his plans on a private online diary that he kept on Discord, a chat application.
Those writings show that Gendron had easily sidestepped a 2019 state law — known as a “redflag” law — to buy an assault-style rifle in January, despite having been picked up by State Police and held for a mental-health evaluation last year after making a threat at his high school. The red-flag law allows courts, if petitioned by concerned citizens or officials, to issue orders to seize weapons if an individual is found to be “likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others.”
Under an executive order issued by the governor Wednesday, State Police would be required to seek such orders in every case in which there is “probable cause.”
Gendron wrote on Discord that he had lied to officials at the time of his mental-health evaluation last June, saying he was joking on a school assignment about wanting to commit a “murder-suicide.”
“It was not a joke,” he wrote. “I wrote that down because that’s what I was planning to do.”
The case continued to evoke high emotions in Buffalo, the state’s second-most populous city. During the hearing, someone sitting in the court shouted, “Payton, you’re a coward!,” as the suspect was led out in handcuffs.
Buffalo residents entering the courthouse for routine appointments said they felt uneasy with the suspect in the same building, while others mourned.
“It’s an eerie feeling to know that he’s being held and we can’t hold ours anymore,” said Vern Hall, 61, who said he used to deliver newspapers to Ruth Whitfield, a 86-year-old grandmother who was killed in the shooting. “To know that he’s here, to know that he’s here in this city, that he’s sitting, it’s not a comfortable feeling.”