Death Penalty ‘Justified’ for Buffalo Supermarket Shooter Payton Gendron, DOJ Says

The Justice Department said Friday that it would seek the death penalty against the white supremacist who shot and killed 10 Black people and injured three others at a Buffalo supermarket.

In a new court filing seen by The Messenger, the DoJ said that the death sentence for Payton Gendron was "justified," following his attack at the Tops grocery store on May 14 2022.

"Payton Gendron committed the offense after substantial planning and premeditation to cause the death of a person," the filing said, adding that the killings were clearly racially-motivated.

"[Gendron] expressed bias, hatred, and contempt toward Black persons and his animus toward Black persons played a role in the killings."

Relatives of his victims were called to federal court Friday, for a meeting with Department of Justice representatives. A status conference had already been planned for the afternoon.

There had been a long wait to hear if Gendron, 20, would face the death penalty for his actions. He was already serving multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

While New York state does not have capital punishment, executions are possible in federal cases such as Gendron's.

His lawyers had said he would plead guilty if the death penalty was not sought. A DoJ recommendation was issued last fall, but was not made public.

Those killed at the Tops Friendly Market on Buffalo’s largely Black East Side were aged from 32 to 86. A church deacon, the grocery store’s guard, a man shopping for a birthday cake and a grandmother of nine were among the dead.

Families of the victims previously filed a lawsuit alleging that social media companies were responsible for the shooter's radicalization by allowing racist propaganda on their networks.

Gendron then used social media himself during the attack, live-streaming it on Amazon-owned Twitch.

Reacting to Friday's announcement, the campaign group Death Penalty Action called out President Biden.

"This Biden administration has pledged to abolish the federal death penalty, and here they are, seeking it yet again," Death Penalty Action cofounder Abe Bonowitz said in a statement released to The Messenger.

"The false promise of a death sentence which may not be achieved, and an execution which may never happen, only exacerbates the waste of tax payer dollars that we know capital punishment to be."