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A white man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store on May 14th was charged with 25 counts on Wednesday, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime, authorities said.
The grand jury’s indictment came more than two weeks after police said 18-year-old Peyton Hendron was traveling to Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo and shot dead 13 people, 11 of them Black. Prior to the riot, investigators say Hendron said he had joined a racist ideology called the “Great Replacement” theory.
In a confusing 180-page document shared online, Hendron declared himself a white supporter, called his planned rampage terrorism, and expressed a desire to incite more violence.
The victims of the Buffalo shooting
After the live attack, the attacker surrendered, police said, and was charged with first-degree murder. The suspect pleaded not guilty.
Authorities said the grand jury’s investigation was ongoing and that the shooting appeared to be a hate crime fueled by racism. Federal authorities are also investigating the shooting as a hate crime and have not filed charges.
The grand jury hearing the Gendron case returned one charge of domestic terrorism motivated by hatred, 10 charges of first-degree murder as a hate crime, 10 charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime, three charges of attempted murder by hatred. second degree as a hate crime and a second degree charge of criminal possession of a weapon.
If convicted of domestic terrorism motivated by hatred, Hendron will face an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
Hendron is due to be charged Thursday afternoon. His lawyer, Daniel Dubois, and John Flynn, Erie County District Attorney, declined to comment before appearing in court.
The shooting shook Buffalo and reverberated across the country, the latest in a series of attacks in which officials say alleged or convicted gunmen were motivated by bigotry. When President Biden spoke in Buffalo three days after the killings, he referred to the locations of some of these other massacres, including El Paso, Pittsburgh and Charleston, South Carolina. Ten days after the Buffalo massacre, a gunman fatally shot dead 19 students and two teachers. texas elementary school.
After the Buffalo shooting, details emerged that suggest extensive planning before Hendron left for about three hours from his home in Conklin, New York, to Buffalo, investigators said. The Washington Post reviewed hundreds of pages of messages published online by a writer who identified himself as Gendron, and included details of plans to kill blacks.
These reports also include mentions of a decision in February to head to the Tops grocery store in Buffalo because of the strong blacks in the community; a March trip to the store to assess its security; and plans to attack other nearby places.
Biden attacks bigotry after Buffalo’s attack, says “white supremacy is poison”
Buffalo police said Hendron was in town in March. They also said investigators believe he planned to continue killing blacks after the attack on the grocery store.
Hendron hid his plans from his family, he wrote, amassing weapons and equipment he hid. At the time of the attack, Gendron was said to be wearing tactical equipment and an assault weapon that appeared to be racially abusive.
Shortly before the shooting, he sent an invitation to Discord users to join a chat room to watch the stream live. Fifteen people accepted the invitation.
Buffalo residents are still shaking after a gunman launched a racially motivated attack on a grocery store, killing 10 people. (Video: Zoeann Murphy / The Washington Post)
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