Topline
A man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store last month was indicted Wednesday on murder and domestic terrorism charges, following a shooting spree that authorities have described as a racially motivated attack on a predominantly Black community.
Payton Gendron arrives for a hearing at the Erie County Courthouse on May 19.
Key Facts
A grand jury in Erie County, New York, indicted 18-year-old Payton Gendron on 25 counts, including one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hate, according to an indictment released by court officials.
Gendron was also indicted on 10 first-degree murder counts, 10 counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three counts of attempted murder—for the three people who survived the supermarket shooting—and one count of criminal weapons possession.
Kaitlyn Munro—a spokesperson for the Erie County District Attorney’s office—confirmed to Forbes the grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday, but she did not comment on the specific charges.
Prosecutors said two weeks ago a grand jury had voted to indict Gendron for first-degree murder, but details were not released at the time.
Gendron pleaded not guilty last month; Forbes has reached out to his attorney for comment.
What To Watch For
Gendron is set to be arraigned in court on Thursday.
Key Background
Gendron was accused of shooting 13 people, 10 of whom died, at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo’s East Side neighborhood more than two weeks ago. Of the 13 victims, 11 were Black. Local police said Gendron—a native of an upstate New York town more than 150 miles away from Buffalo—traveled for hours to commit the shooting with a goal of targeting Black residents. Ahead of the shooting, Gendron purportedly posted online a 180-page racist screed in which he identified himself as a white supremacist and backed the conspiracy theory that people of color are “replacing” white Americans, and messages first obtained by the Washington Post appeared to suggest Gendron had discussed plans to murder Black people en masse for months.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/06/01/alleged-buffalo-shooter-indicted-for-domestic-terrorism/