Watch: Buffalo shooter willing to plead guilty to federal charges if death penalty is taken off table
Payton Gendron, 19, pleaded guilty last month to state charges of murder and hate-motivated terrorism in the May 14 mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market.
The white gunman who pled guilty to state charges in the massacre of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket is willing to plead guilty to federal charges if spared the death penalty, according to his attorneys.
Payton Gendron, 19, faces multiple federal hate crime charges — including 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death and three counts of hate crime involving bodily injury — which could lead to the death penalty. The Justice Department has not begun any new efforts to seek the death penalty since President Joe Biden took office and there is a moratorium on executions.
Gendron entered the guilty plea in connection to state charges of murder and hate-motivated terrorism in the May 14 mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market. A total of 13 people, including 11 Black people and two white people, were shot in the massacre, which Gendron streamed on the social media platform, Twitch.
Documents found in Gendron’s home suggest that he chose the Buffalo market because it was the closest location to his home that attracted the most Black people.
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