By Armita Rohani
As we approach the one year anniversary of the Buffalo Tops shooting, the man responsible for it has been sentenced to life without parole in prison. At 2:30 PM on May 14, 2022, Payton Gendron arrived armed at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, centered in a black neighborhood. He had driven for three and a half hours from his home in Conklin, New York twice- the first time to carry out a reconnaissance at the market and the second time to commit these murders. Gendron shot four people in the parking lot and then entered the store, shooting another eight, all while screaming racial slurs during his hate-motivated attack. The shootings were live-streamed on Twitch, with him saying that he had taken “inspiration” from other mass shooters who shared his racist ideology. At one point, he accidentally aimed his gun at a white person behind the checkout counter and promptly apologized and did not shoot. A total of sixty bullets were fired that day; 13 people were shot, and ten died, all of whom were Black.
During the emotional court proceedings at the Erie County Courthouse, Gendron was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Family members of the victims delivered tearful and angry testimonials as they recalled the tragic event that had changed their lives. Wayne Jones, the son of 65 year old victim Celestine Chaney, said he watched Gendron shoot his mother twice live on stream: “I watched you shoot her once, reload, and shoot her again. You look like a young man who could be anybody’s son,” Jones said. “You do not come across to me as a racist killer, even though that’s what you’ve done … I don’t wish the death penalty on you. I wish they will keep you alive so you have to suffer with the thought of what you did for the rest of your life.” One of the victim’s sons rushed at Payton before being restrained by law enforcement saying: “I want personally to choke you, your little punk a** decided to come here to kill Black people.” Tamika Harper, the niece of one of the shooting victims delivered a tearful testimony and showed mercy to Gendron: “So do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to stay alive. I want you to think about this every day of your life. It hurts so bad. But I’m going to pray for you, and I want everyone to pray for all the families.” Barbara Massey, the sister of a shooting victim, painfully screamed at Gendron: “You going to come to our city and decide that you don’t like Black people. Man you don’t know a damn thing about black people. We’re human.”
While handcuffed and wearing orange prison clothes, Gendron stated an apology to all the family members of his victims, saying that he acted out hate and did not want other white supremacists to be inspired by his actions: ““I’m very sorry for all the pain I forced the victims and their families to suffer through. I’m very sorry for stealing the lives of your loved ones. I cannot express how much I regret all the decisions I made leading up to my actions on May 14, I did a terrible thing that day. I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I did it.” His apology was met with someone in the courtroom yelling “You don’t mean none of that!” Flynn, the district attorney, supported such a claim and stated that Gendron’s apologies were solely an effort to escape the death penalty and lacked any sincerity or compassion. In a 180-page statement, Gendron said that his goal was to “kill as many Black people as possible, in order to start a race war.” During lockdown in 2020 he became radicalized and was inspired by mass shooter Brenton Tarrant, who had killed 51 people and injured 40 in New Zealand in 2019.
Judge Susan Eagan sentenced Payton on February 15 to life in prison without parole and told him that “There is no place for you and your ignorant, hateful ideology. There can be no mercy for you. No understanding. No second chances. The damage you have caused is too great. And the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again.” Gendron still faces further charges that could involve a death penalty by the Justice Department as his hate crime and firearm charges make him eligible for capital punishment.
