Buffalo mass shooting: Payton Gendron indicted
NEW YORK - Payton Gendron, the man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket was indicted by a grand jury and briefly appeared in court on Thursday.
Gendron, 18, is accused of targeting Blacks at the Tops Friendly Market in Saturday's attack. Among the dead was security guard Aaron Salter. The retired Buffalo police officer fired multiple shots at Gendron, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Assistant district attorney Gary Hackbush said the indictment of Gendron was handed up Wednesday.
Gendron, wearing orange clothing and mask, was silent throughout the proceeding and sent back to jail. Someone shouted "Payton you’re a coward!" as he was led out.
The FBI is investigating the shooting as both a hate crime and racially motivated violent extremism.
The attack came a year after Gendron was taken to a hospital by state police after making threats involving his high school, according to authorities.
The shooter livestreamed the massacre on Twitch.
Gendron allegedly had previously visited websites espousing white supremacist ideologies and race-based conspiracy theories such as the so-called great replacement theory.
He allegedly had written a 180-page manifesto before the mass shooting and sought input for it online.
According to the Associated Press, the document outlined a racist ideology rooted in a belief that the United States should belong only to White people. All others, the document said, were "replacers" who should be eliminated by force or terror. The attack was intended to intimidate all non-White, non-Christian people and get them to leave the country, it said.
The document said Gendron researched demographics to select his target, and picked a neighborhood in Buffalo because it had a high ratio of Black residents.
Federal agents have interviewed Gendron's parents and served search warrants in the case, according to the Associated Press. Gendron’s parents were cooperating with investigators, an unnamed official said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, called for the tech industry to take responsibility for their role in propagating hate speech.
And signing an executive order on Wednesday, Hochul will be requiring that every county and New York City develop plans to identify and confront threats of domestic terrorism, including racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. These plans must be submitted by the end of the year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.