Jury selection to begin in US trial of Buffalo shooter — The Guardian

Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday in Buffalo, New York, for the federal trial of Payton Gendron, who killed 10 people at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in 2022. He could face the death penalty in the case, The Guardian reports.

Gendron is already serving life imprisonment on New York state murder charges. At the federal level, he faces more than two dozen hate crime charges as well as more than a dozen weapons-related charges.

Defense position

The defense does not plan to contest Gendron's guilt. Instead, his lawyers intend to persuade jurors not to sentence him to death. The Federal Public Defender's Office said it would present evidence of mitigating circumstances that jurors must consider when deciding on the punishment.

Relatives of those killed and survivors have differing views on a possible death sentence. Buffalo City Council member Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire survived the attack, said the lives of the three survivors of the shooting had changed irreversibly.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Supermarket attack

On May 14, 2022, the 18-year-old Gendron traveled more than 320 kilometers from the town of Conklin to Buffalo. At the supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, he fired about 60 shots from a semi-automatic rifle at employees and shoppers, then surrendered to police after leaving the store.

All 10 victims were Black people aged 32 to 86. Investigators found social media posts and other texts in which Gendron described preparations for an attack aimed at intimidating people who are not white and non-Christians. In these materials, he also promoted the unfounded so-called great replacement theory.

According to The Guardian, the Buffalo attack is considered the deadliest shooting targeting Black people in modern US history.