The young white supremacist accused of having perpetrated a racist massacre in May by murdering ten black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, north of New York, pleaded guilty on Monday to racist murders and an act of terrorism before the justice of the New York State.
He “pleaded guilty to the charges” contained “in the indictment”, prosecutor John Flynn announced, shortly after the hearing in an Erie County court, recalling the “racist” nature of these crimes. , “nurtured by white supremacist ideology and deliberately targeting black people”.
After this judicial step, Payton Gendron, 18 years old at the time of the massacre, on May 14, “incurs a life sentence without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on Wednesday, February 15, 2023”, added the prosecutor in a communicated. But he is also charged in federal court, where he theoretically faces the death penalty.
Premeditated
During his press conference, the prosecutor recalled that the young man, in detention since May, had meticulously prepared his acts, and that he was equipped, in addition to an AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle, with a portable camera to film his killing and broadcast it on the Twitch live video platform.
“Even if justice has been served, nothing will ever bring back the ten beautiful people who lost their lives that day,” said John Flynn. “Let’s hope that the judicial term [de l’affaire] will bring families and victims some relief,” he added. The victims were between the ages of 20 and 86.
In his posts and a racist, supremacist and conspiratorial manifesto attributed to him, Payton Gendron had written several months before the massacre that he wanted to kill black people and that he was targeting a poor and isolated neighborhood in Buffalo because of his high proportion of African Americans. He had also made a reconnaissance trip before the massacre in Buffalo, 300 km north of his home.
The carnage had been a new shock to the United States, doubled only ten days later by another massacre with a semi-automatic rifle carried out by an 18-year-old young man, who had killed 19 children and two teachers in a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Recurring debate
These killings, the list of which has since grown, have reignited the recurring debate on a lack of gun regulation in the United States, but Democratic President Joe Biden has so far failed to push through. Congress banning assault rifles like the AR-15, due to Republican opposition.
After the Buffalo bloodbath, the state of New York, the fourth most populous in the United States (nearly 20 million inhabitants), governed by Democrat Kathy Hochul, raised the age to be able to obtain a semi-automatic rifle 18-21.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 600 shootings with multiple victims (at least four people killed or injured) have taken place in the United States since the beginning of the current year.
About 49,000 people died from firearms in the United States in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record year. This represents more than 130 deaths per day, more than half of which are suicides.