BUFFALO SHOOTING: SUSPECT IS INDICTED ON A DOMESTIC TERRORISM CHARGE

Thu 02 June 2022:

A grand jury indicted the white man suspected of killing ten Black people in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket with state domestic terrorism and hate crime, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

On Thursday, Payton Gendron will be arraigned on the new 25-count indictment, which adds to a previous murder charge drafted in the hours after the May 14 event.

The 18-year-old has now been charged with attempted murder of three people who were shot but survived the incident, as well as felony firearm possession.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. On May 20, prosecutors told a judge that a grand jury had decided to charge Gendron, but that they would not reveal the charges because the case was still pending.

Brian Parker, Gendron’s attorney, said he had not seen the indictment and could not comment, noting that a court had forbidden prosecutors and defence attorneys from discussing the issue publicly.

The horrific nature of the crime and number of victims was likely to already guarantee a life sentence if Gendron is convicted. New York has no death penalty. But adding a state terrorism charge could carry additional emotional resonance and help authorities send a message about violent extremism.

Domestic Acts of Terrorism Motivated by Hate in the First Degree accuses Gendron of killing “because of the presumed race and/or colour” of his victims, according to the domestic terrorism allegation.

“This man was motivated by hate against people he never met for no reason other than the color of their skin,” said Buffalo lawyer John Elmore, who represents the families of victims Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72, and Andre Mackniel, 53. Elmore said he hoped for a conviction on every count.In the aftermath of a mass massacre targeting Mexicans at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, former Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed the domestic terrorism hate crime statute in August 2019.

The “Josef Neumann Hate Crimes Domestic Terrorism Act” was signed into law on April 3, 2020, and took effect on November 1, 2020, following an attack on a rabbi’s home in Munsey, New York.

The law drew on a previous domestic terrorism law enacted in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which was aimed largely at combating international extremism.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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