An avowed white supremacist who carried out a deadly mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo has pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges.
Payton Gendron, 19, drove three hours from her home near Binghamton, New York, to the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo, where she opened fire with an AR-15-style semi-automatic assault rifle.
The teenager, who was wearing a military-style bulletproof vest at the time, killed 10 people and wounded three others in the May attack this year.
Police say Gendron left a racist manifesto online before the attack, in which he admitted targeting the city because it is a predominantly black neighborhood, a court heard.
Eleven of Gendron’s victims were black.
Payton Gendron in a police mug shot
Those killed ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included an armed security guard who died trying to protect customers, a church deacon, and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner.
In court, Gendron admitted to all charges against him, including murder, murder as a hate crime, and hate-motivated domestic terrorism.
Gendron also admitted to wounding three people who survived the attack, which took place in May this year.
The teenager, who was handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit, showed little emotion during the 45-minute proceedings, which took place in an Erie County courthouse just two miles from the scene of the shooting.
Police at the site of the attack in May this year. photo: AP
Gendron will spend the rest of his life behind bars, while facing life in prison without parole. The state of New York does not have the death penalty.
The sentencing hearing is expected at a later date.
A separate indictment returned in a US District Court in July charged Gendron with 27 federal hate crimes and firearms offenses, for which he could be sentenced to death if convicted.
After the attack, police were praised for responding less than two minutes after the incident began.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said more lives likely would have been lost were it not for their “rapid response” and “brave actions.”
