Jury selection begins in federal death penalty trial of Buffalo supermarket gunman

Mixed · 2Jury selection was set to begin on Tuesday 13 October 2026 in the federal trial of Payton Gendron, who faces a possible death sentence for the 2022 shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. 1 2 Mixed · 2Gendron faces 27 federal hate crime charges and 20 firearms charges, according to The Independent; the AP copy in the New York Post says "over two dozen" hate crime charges and "more than a dozen" firearms charges. 2 1 Mixed · 2He is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state murder charges in 2023, when he tearfully admitted to the attack and renounced his white supremacist views. 1 2

Mixed · 2On 14 May 2022, an 18-year-old Gendron drove more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to Buffalo and fired around 60 shots from a rifle at shoppers and employees, then surrendered to police outside the store; video showed him apologising to a white store worker he had shot. 1 2 Right · 1All 10 people killed were Black and aged 32 to 86; they included Celestine Chaney, Ruth Whitfield and Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer working as a security guard. Investigators found Gendron's online posts and writings planning an attack on non-white, non-Christian people and promoting the baseless "great replacement" theory. 1 Mixed · 2His federal defence team will not dispute his guilt. The Federal Public Defender's Office said "Nothing will change the fact that Payton Gendron will die in prison" and that it will present mitigating evidence for the jury to consider. 1 2

Mixed · 2Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department decided in 2024 to seek the death penalty, the first capital case overseen by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, who had imposed a moratorium on federal executions. Prosecutors rejected an offer by Gendron to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. 1 2 Right · 1Victims' relatives are divided. Wayne Jones, whose mother Celestine Chaney was killed, does not want a death sentence and says Gendron should "sit and have to think about it" while facing decades of appeals. Zeneta Everhart, a Buffalo Common Council member whose son Zaire survived being shot in the neck, says seeking the death penalty is important but that justice will be served if he does not get it. 1 Mixed · 2Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother Ruth was killed, takes no position on capital punishment, calling it a matter for the federal government. He hopes testimony will reveal the support Gendron may have had and the radicalisation behind the attack. 1 2

Mixed · 2Hate crime analyst Brian Levin said Gendron fits a pattern of young, mostly white men carrying out targeted massacres justified by manifestos. FBI data released in August showed more than 2,800 anti-Black hate crime incidents reported in 2025, nearly three times the number targeting Latino victims, while overall hate crime incidents fell 7%. 1 2