BUFFALO, N.Y. – Families of the victims of the 2022 mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, are scheduled to meet with officials from the Justice Department. The meeting precedes a previously planned status hearing and comes after a White gunman killed 10 people in what was found to be a racially motivated attack at a Tops Friendly Markets grocery store located in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The families will be briefed on an important announcement that the Justice Department is making in the case at a meeting in Buffalo.
The gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, used an illegally modified semi-automatic rifle to carry out the deadly attack, which he live-streamed. The victims included customers, employees, and an armed security guard, ranging in age from 20 to 86. Of the 13 people shot, including 11 Black people and two White people, all the victims who died were Black, according to authorities.
Gendron pleaded guilty to one count of domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder, and a weapons possession charge. He was sentenced to life in prison at a state sentencing hearing in New York. He also faces federal charges including 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death, 10 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a violent crime, three counts of hate crime involving bodily injury, and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime. The federal charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.
Justice Department officials have been deliberating on whether Gendron will face the death penalty in the federal case, which has delayed the trial’s start. The United States Department of Justice did not provide any further information when asked about the announcement.