Buffalo mass shooting suspect finds not guilty to 25 counts

Buffalo mass shooting suspect finds not guilty to 25 counts. 

According to court papers, the avowed white supremacist accused of a racist assault that murdered ten people at a supermarket in a Black area of Buffalo, New York, pleaded not guilty to 25 charges in a grand jury indictment.

According to local media, Payton Gendron, the suspected shooter, appeared in court for an arraignment hearing before Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan, who ordered the 18-year-old jailed without release. On July 7, he is expected back in court.

According to prosecutors, Gendron was targeting Black people when he traveled three hours from his home near Binghamton, New York, and shot 13 people with a semi-automatic assault-style weapon at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo on May 14, killing ten people.

On Wednesday, a grand jury handed down a 25-count indictment. The first count of the accusation, domestic terrorism motivated by hatred, charges Gendron with carrying out the assault “because of the presumed race and/or color of such individuals or people” who were wounded and murdered. The charge involves a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

At a press conference after the arraignment, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn stated Gendron is the first defendant to face a charge under New York’s domestic terrorism hate crime legislation. 

After a mass shooting targeting Mexicans at a Walmart shop in El Paso, Texas, the ordinance was introduced and went into effect on November 1, 2020.

In addition, Gendron is charged with ten charges of first-degree murder and ten counts of second-degree murder, all of which are hate crimes. 

The grand jury returned three charges of attempted murder as hate crimes and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm, which evaluates if there is enough evidence to put a defendant to trial.

“When you hear the term, throw the book at someone,” Flynn said, “well, in this instance, right here, the defendant just received ‘War and Peace,'” alluding to Leo Tolstoy’s 1,200-page work.

According to Flynn, the weapons allegation derives from the shooter’s rifle modification to accommodate a more extended magazine.

According to Reuters, Gendron’s lawyer is adhering to the court’s gag order and has no comment.

Authorities said the shooter broadcast live footage of the assault to a social media site after posting white nationalist propaganda on the internet, indicating that he was inspired by prior racially motivated mass shootings.