The scene outside Tops Supermarket Saturday.Photo: Matt Rourke/AP/Shutterstock
The suspect in last month’smass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery storethat killed 10 Black people has been charged with multiple hate crimes, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Peyton Gendron, 18, faces charges including hate crimes resulting in death, hate crimes involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence and use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, according to a DOJ release.
In the DOJ release, authorities said the suspect’s “motivation for the attack was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race.”
In the months before the attack, the suspect allegedly wrote a “self-described manifesto” detailing his plan. According to authorities, the document revealed the suspect “selected the zip code 14208 because it has the highest percentage of Black people close enough to where he lives and that he selected the Tops store because it is where a large number of Black people can be found.”
Katherine Massey, Aaron Salter, Jr., Pearl Young.courtesy
During the attack, the suspect allegedly aimed his rifle at a white supermarket employee, the criminal complaint against him states. “Rather than shooting him, [the suspect] said, ‘sorry,’ to Victim 8, before moving on through the rest of the store in search of more Black people to shoot and kill,” the complaint states.
It was not immediately clear if the suspect had entered a plea to the federal charges.
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If convicted, the suspect is eligible for the death penalty, according to the release, though there is currently a moratorium on federal executions,The New York Timesreports.
A memorial across the street from Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, NY.Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty
CNN reportsthat Garland, when asked Wednesday if the death penalty would be considered for the suspect, said, “The Justice Department has a series of procedures it follows … The families and the survivors would be consulted.”
On June 1, the suspect wasindicted on 25 countsincluding first-degree murder and second-degree murder as a hate crime, domestic terrorism and other charges. His attorney for the state charges, Daniel Dubois, did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
CNN reportsthat the suspect pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
source: people.com
