The Justice Department has indicated in a court filing Friday that it is intending to seek the death penalty for Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron.
Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the May 2022 attack that left 10 Black people dead at a Tops grocery store.
New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. Gendron had promised to plead guilty in that case if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
In a notice announcing the decision to seek the death penalty, Trini Ross, the U.S. attorney for western New York, wrote that Gendron had selected the supermarket “in order to maximize the number of Black victims.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
