The US Department of Justice is seeking the death penalty against the racially-motivated Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron.
The agency announced the decision in a court filing.
The “United States believes the circumstances in Counts 11-20 of the indictment are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified,” the notice of intent to seek the death penalty read.
In the document filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York on Friday, the DOJ said that the punishment is justifiable in the event of a conviction.
Prosecutors aim to prove that Mr Gendron committed the following: Intentional killing, intentional infliction of serious bodily injury, intentional participation in an act resulting in death, intentional engagement in an act of violence, knowing that the act created a grave risk of death to a person, in addition to statutory aggravating factors.
In May 2022, Gendron killed ten people and injured three others when he opened fire at a Tops Friendly Markets location. The chain is based in Amherst, New York.
“Payton Gendron expressed bias, hatred, and contempt toward Black persons and his animus toward Black persons played a role,” the filing read.
According to the criminal complaint against him, Gendron was motivated by a racist conspiracy theory called the “great replacement.” The theory purports that “nonwhite immigrants are part of a plot designed to undermine or ‘replace’ the political power and culture of white people living in Western countries,” according to the National Immigration Forum.
During his sentencing, Gendron said he was “very sorry for all the pain.”
“I did a terrible thing that day. I shot people because they were Black,” he said.
The 19-year-old was sentenced to life in prison without parole in February 2023. He previously pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, murder and attempted murder.
