Payton Gendron, the suspect in the Buffalo supermarket shooting, is anticipated to enter a guilty plea during a court hearing set for Monday, according to information that appeared to be corroborated on Thursday by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, ABC News reports.
Additionally, lawyers for the victims’ families claim they were informed to anticipate a guilty plea from the Buffalo shooting suspect.
In connection with the mass shooting at the Tops local supermarket on May 14, Gendron is facing 20 state counts. Authorities claim that a racially motivated attack resulted in the deaths of ten Black persons.
This has been the first indictment in the state to make use of a law that combined terrorism and hate crimes.
Monday at 2 p.m. is Gendron’s scheduled court appearance in Erie County.
Considering that the attorneys involved in the case are subject to a gag order, an official from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Indicted on 10 counts of first-degree murder, 10 counts of second-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder, and one count of unlawful weapon possession, Gendron, who was 18 at the time, was charged with a total of 20 acts of homicide, all of which were classified as hate crimes, Reuters reported.
He is also accused of one count of domestic terrorism motivated by hatred, making him the first individual to be prosecuted under a recently passed law in the state of New York.
Gendron, described by prosecutors as an “avowed white supremacist,” is charged with assaulting a supermarket owned by Tops Friendly Markets in a Buffalo community that is predominately African-American in order to specifically target Black individuals.
If Gendron, a resident of Conklin, New York, enters a guilty plea, the case against him will not proceed to trial. On the state’s charges, he may get the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison.
According to Reuters, In a second indictment handed out in U.S. District Court in July, Gendron was accused of committing 27 federal hate crimes as well as crimes involving weapons. If found guilty, he might be executed.
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