On May 14, Payton Gendron drove 200 miles to Buffalo, New York, stopped at Tops grocery and began shooting at shoppers in the small store. Though police officers were on the scene in just six minutes, by the time they arrived the shooter had killed 10 and wounded three people.
Gendron was 19 years old at the time.
At the time, Spectrum News 1 described the event as “horrifying” and “pure evil.” Gendron has been labeled as a white supremacist — Erie County Sheriff John Garcia described the incident as a “racially motivated hate crime.”
On July 14, a Federal Grand Jury issued a 27-count indictment which included 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill three injured individuals, and one hate crimes count alleging that Gendron attempted to kill additional black people in and around the Tops grocery store.
Gendron pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Gendron to life in prison for his crime. During sentencing, the judge told him: “You’ll never see the light of day as a free man ever again.”
As part of the sentencing process, the judge allowed for victim allocution, a time when victims can directly address the accused. As a female family member of one of the victims delivered a fiery rebuke, a male standing by her attempted to rush the defendant.
Officers intercepted the man, but the courtroom momentarily erupted into chaos. The defendant was ushered out of the room while officers fought to regain control.
News10nbc reported that the man who lunged toward the shooter was a family member of one of the victims.
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