The white supremacist whokilled 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarketwas sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the chance for parole.
Payton Gendronpleaded guilty in Novemberto charges including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. The terrorism charge carried an automatic life sentence.
Before imposing sentence, Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan spoke of the insidious legacy and impact of white supremacy in the United States.
"Let ours be the generation to put a stop to it," Eagan said. "We can do better. We must do better. Our own humanity requires it."
Eagan spoke about the life of each of the victims as she imposed additional life sentences for each of the ten counts of first-degree murder. Under the law, those sentences will run concurrently. Gendron was also sentenced to 25 years on each of three counts of attempted murder, to be served consecutively.
The judge had harsh words for Gendron, telling him he would never see the light of day as a free man ever again.
"There is no place for you or your ignorant hateful ideologies in this civilized society," Eagan said. "There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances. The damage you have caused has been too great, and the people that you hurt are too valuable to this community."
Gendron made a brief statement during the proceedings, standing in his orange prison jumpsuit with his hands and feet shackled as he apologized for the pain that he forced the victims and their families to suffer through.
"I did a terrible thing that day. I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can't believe I actually did it," Gendron said. "I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can't take it back but I wish I could, and I don't want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did."
After court had finished, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown dismissed Gendron's showing of remorse as too little, too late.
"The time to be remorseful was when the thought came into his mind to kill innocent people, when he was driving hundreds of miles to get to this community," Brown said.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said that swift justice was done in this case.
"This defendant needed to be removed from society, taken off the streets, and put behind bars for the rest of his life, and he was," Flynn told reporters. "And that gives me some satisfaction."
Gendron will be held in federal custody while the U.S. Justice Department decides whether to pursue additional charges against him.
Proceedings disrupted by distraught spectator
Gendron had to be hustled out of the courtroom Wednesday after someone in the audience rushed at him and was restrained by a court officer.
His sentencing in the attack, which was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, resumed shortly after the disruption. The incident happened as Barbara Massey Mapps excoriated him for killing her 72-year-old sister, Katherine Massey. As Mapps shouted and pointed at Gendron, a person in the audience took a few steps toward him before being held back.
“You don’t know what we’re going through,” the man shouted as he was led away by court officers. For several minutes thereafter, family members hugged and calmed each other as order was restored.
Judge Eagan ordered Gendron back in and let the proceeding resume after about 10 minutes, admonishing everyone to “conduct ourselves appropriately.”
“I understand that emotion, and I understand the anger, but we cannot have that in the courtroom,” she said.
Gendronpleaded guilty in Novemberto charges including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate. The terrorism charge carried an automatic life sentence. According to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, it was the first time someone has been convicted of the domestic terrorism charge in New York state.
Victims' families speak out
The sentencing was a chance for loved ones of the dead, as well as people wounded in the attack last spring, to pour out their loss, anguish and ire.
Some, like Massey Mapps, angrily condemned him; others quoted from the Bible or said they were praying for him. Several condemned him for his deliberate attack on a Black community far from his nearly all-white hometown.
“You’ve been brainwashed,” Wayne Jones Sr., the only child of victim Celestine Chaney, said as sobs rose from the audience. “You don’t even know Black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet, and it was a big mistake.”
“I hope you find it in your heart to apologize to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason,” Jones said.
Kimberly Salter, the widow of security guard Aaron Salter, explained that she and her family were wearing “red for the blood that he shed for his family and for his community, and black because we are still grieving.”
Christopher Braden, a Tops Friendly Market employee who was shot in the leg, said he was haunted by seeing the victims where they lay as he was carried out of the store.
“The visions haunt me in my sleep and every day,” he said.
At one point, Gendron began crying himself.
'Forgiveness is a part of the healing process'
For years, Duane Price, pastor at Buffalo’s Cornerstone Church Ministries, worked at a radio station with the mother of Tops security guard Aaron Salter Jr., who fought Gendron before being gunned down.
Price said the sentencing day was welcome, but weighted with emotion.
“A lot of times in situations like this, you tend to lose hope, because of how things happened in the past,” Price said. “But it’s amazing to see that day finally come. It’s something that we’ve all been looking for and waiting for it to happen.”
Price, the pastor, turned to scripture to put the day in context, even the moment when a man charged at Gendron, forcing officers to hurry him out and to clear the courtroom.
“Scripture says: ‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,’” Price said. “When we are hurting and angry, we tend to try to take care of the situation or the circ*mstances ourselves. Instead of allowing the Lord to do what he's supposed to do. And it's not easy. It's very hard. Which is why all hell broke loose. The emotions are high, the pain is great, and you want to take care of it. You want to pay that tax yourselves because it gives you some sort of satisfaction.”
Some family members spoke of forgiveness. Others did not. Price offered a thought on that, as well.
“Forgiveness is a part of the healing process, but forgiveness is a hard thing to do because we equate forgetting with forgiving. When you are done wrong, you will never forget it. But when you forgive them, you will get to the place where it no longer hurts you.”
Racist attack shook community
Gendron, now 19, wore bullet-resistant armor and a helmet equipped with a live-streaming camera as he carried out the May 14 attack. He killed his victims with a semiautomatic rifle, purchased legally but then modified so he could load it with high-capacity ammunition magazines that are illegal in New York.
There were only three survivors after he shot 13 people, specifically seeking out Black shoppers and workers.
His victims at Tops Friendly Market included a church deacon, the grocery store's guard, a neighborhood activist, a man shopping for a birthday cake, a grandmother of nine and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner. The victims ranged in age from 32 to 86.
In documents posted online, Gendron said he hoped the attack would help preserve white power in the U.S. He wrote that he picked the Tops grocery store, about a three-hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Gendron could still face federal charges
Gendron also facesseparate federal chargesthat could carry a death sentence if the U.S. Justice Department chooses to seek it. New York state does not have the death penalty.
Gendron's admission of guilt on the state charges is seen as a potential help in avoiding a death sentence in the penalty phase of any federal trial. In a December hearing, defense attorney Sonya Zoghlin said Gendron is prepared to enter a guilty plea in federal court in exchange for a life sentence.
The mass shooting in Buffalo, and another less than two weeks later that killed 19 students and two teachers at aTexas elementary school, amplified calls for stronger gun controls, including from victims’ relatives whotraveled to Washington, D.C. to testifybefore lawmakers.
New York legislators quickly passed a law banning semiautomatic rifle sales to most people under age 21. The state also banned sales of some types of body armor.
President Joe Biden signed acompromise gun violence billin June intended to toughen background checks, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws making it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous.
Includes reporting from Gannett reporter Peter Kramer and the Associated Press.
Contact reporter Sean Lahman atslahman@gannett.com. Follow him onTwitter@seanlahman.
