Buffalo mass shooting suspect Payton Gendron has been charged with federal hate crimes over the massacre of 10 Black people in a New York grocery store last month.
The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that it had filed a slew of 26 charges against the 18-year-old self-proclaimed white supremacist and racist.
The charges include 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death, three counts involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder and in retaliation to a crime of violence and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during and in retaliation to a crime of violence.
Prosecutors said the hate crime charges were brought because “Gendron’s motive for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks”.
If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
The charges were filed the same day Attorney General Merrick Garland planned to travel to Buffalo to visit the site of the mass shooting and meet with victims’ family members and survivors of the attack which tore apart the lives of families and the wider community.
Mr Garland had vowed to “relentlessly” investigate the mass shooting as a hate crime and racially-motivated violent extremism days after the 14 May massacre.
That Saturday afternoon, Mr Gendron allegedly drove from his home in Conklin, New York, to the Tops Friendly Market grocery store, handpicking the city of Buffalo to carry out the attack because of its predominantly Black population.
Dressed in tactical gear and armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he opened fire outside the store first before moving through the store aisles shooting more victims.
Federal prosecutors say that Mr Gendron sought out Black victims, at one point apologising to a white store employee after he pointed his gun at him.
The gunman said “sorry” and spared the store worker’s life before “moving on through the rest of the store in search of more Black people to shoot and kill”, according to the criminal complaint.
In total, 13 people were shot in the attack, 10 of them fatally.
In total, 11 of the 13 victims were Black and all 10 of those killed were Black.
The gunman fired around 60 shots in total during the attack.
In a self-described manifesto posted online, Mr Gendron detailed his plans to “kill as many blacks as possible”, prosecutors said.
In the manifesto, the 18-year-old also called himself a racist, white supremacist and antisemite and detailed how he had been inspired by other white supremacist mass shooters to carry out the attack.
He also cited the debunked “great replacement theory” which has repeatedly been echoed by right-wing personalities such as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson – an extremist conspiracy theory that falsely claims there is a plot to diminish the influence of white people.
Following Mr Gendron’s arrest, he then made “disturbing statements” about his motive, making clear that he was “filled with hate toward the Black community” and was targeting Black people, officials have said previously.
His firearm had racist slurs and the names of others who have committed mass shootings on it, along with the phrases “Here’s your reparations!” and “The Great Replacement”, prosecutors said.
Mr Gendron also left a chilling handwritten note for his family where he apologised to his family for committing “this attack” but claimed that he “had to commit this attack” because he cares “for the future of the White race”, said prosecutors.
The federal charges announced Wednesday come on top of multiple state charges against the suspected gunman who is accused of boasting about his plans for the massacre online in a racist, hate-filled manifesto.
Mr Gendron was arraigned on 25 state counts including 10 counts of first-degree murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree earlier this month.
The state terrorism charge came into law in the state in November 2020 and Mr Gendron is the first person to ever be charged with it.
The mass shooting in Buffalo came just 10 days before 21 people – 19 students aged nine to 11 years old and two teachers – were shot and killed at a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on 24 May.
Gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, also used a semi-automatic rifle in that attack.
Just over one week later on 1 June, four people were then shot and killed at a medical centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Last week, victims’ families and survivors of the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings testified before the House Oversight Committee as calls are mounting on lawmakers to tighten gun regulations to prevent more families from being torn apart by the nation’s growing numbers of mass shootings.
Zeneta Everhart, the mother of Buffalo survivor Zaire Goodman, gave emotional testimony inviting lawmakers to come to her home and clean the wounds on her son’s bullet-ridden body if they continue to refuse to tackle America’s escalating gun violence.
“To the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws let me paint a picture for you: My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg, caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15,” she told lawmakers.
“If after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today, does not move you to act on gun laws, I invite you to my home to help me clean Zaire’s wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and to my community.”
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of senators said they had reached a deal on a package of narrow gun safety measures.
The deal includes expanding background checks for people aged 18 to 21 and more money for school safety and mental health resources.
It does not include a ban on assault weapons like many are calling for, after high capacity rifles were used in the recent attacks to kill multiple people.
