Payton Gendron Monday pleaded guilty in an Erie County, New York court to criminal charges resulting from a mass shooting he carried out in a Buffalo supermarket in May. Gendron’s defense attorney Brian Parker said:
Our client pled guilty to every count in the indictment with the full knowledge that he will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole. This critical step represents condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14.
A grand jury indicted Gendron in June on 25 state criminal charges including one count of domestic terrorism, ten counts of first-degree murder, ten counts of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three counts of attempted second-degree murder as a hate crime and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.
The live-streamed shooting resulted in the death of 10 Black people in May and was allegedly racially motivated. Three individuals were also injured during the shooting. Gendron faces federal criminal charges, including hate crime resulting in death, to which he pleaded not guilty in July. The federal charges have a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty.