First modification:
Payton Gendron was present at the verdict reading. Also some relatives of the victims. The procedure was stopped on several occasions due to the reactions of those present. Gendron apologized to the judge, however, one of the prosecutors stressed that the apology was aimed at avoiding the death penalty.
Dressed in orange overalls, escorted and wearing glasses: this is how Payton Gendron entered the courtroom. Gendron killed ten African-American people last year in a shopping center in Buffalo, in the limits of the state of New York, United States. He was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison, without the right to parole.
“There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances,” said Erie County Judge Susan Eagan, who read the verdict.
“I am so sorry for all the pain that he forced all the victims and their families to suffer,” Gendron said followed by a cry of pain from an aide. And it is that 13 relatives of the victims were present in the compound where the sentence was announced.
Cited by the Reuters news agency, prosecutors said that the defendant went to a supermarket located more than 300 kilometers from his home with the intention of attacking black people with his assault weapon. The events occurred in May of last year.
One of them ruled that his apology was “to save his life in federal court.” And it is that Payton also faces 27 federal charges, for which his lawyers are trying to reach an agreement on the basis of his guilt to avoid the death sentence, in the event that the Department of Justice advocates capital punishment, since this is not under New York law.
At another point, the relative of one of the deceased jumped on Gendron, prompting law enforcement to intervene. No charges will be filed against the family member. Nor to another who shouted that he did not know “what the families were going through.” This was also withdrawn by court officials.
Last November, Payton Gendron had pleaded guilty to hate-motivated murder and terrorism charges. During the events, the accused used bullet-resistant tactical clothing, illegal high-carry ammunition magazines, a case, and a camera incorporated into it to transmit the attack.
Before arriving at the site of the event, the aforementioned had published a kind of online manifesto in which he explained that he had chosen that supermarket because it was located in a neighborhood where African-Americans predominated. He also wrote that he hoped the attack would help preserve white power in the United States.
the words of relatives
More consternation was caused by the testimonies of the relatives of the dead than by the isolated events and the interruptions that occurred during the exhibition. “We as a people are unwavering,” said one of those present, identified as Crawley. His 86-year-old grandmother was one of the victims.
Wayne Jones went further and stressed that he did not “wish him the death penalty”, he wanted them to keep him alive. “So that you have to suffer thinking about what you did for the rest of your life,” he said. Her mother, Celestine, was 65 when Payton took her life.
For her part, the niece of another of the victims invited the accused to seek forgiveness through prayer. “Think of my family and the nine other families you have destroyed forever,” Tamika Harper said.
The widow of security guard Aaron Salter explained that he was wearing red “because of the blood he shed for his family and his community, and black because they were still” grieving.
One of the survivors of the shooting also testified. He narrated that the visions of that day haunt him while he sleeps. Of the 13 people Payton Geydron shot, only three were left alive.
The victims were between the ages of 36 and 86. Among them, a church deacon, a neighborhood activist, a security guard, a grandmother of nine grandchildren and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner.
Between shootings and the debate on gun control
The event in Buffalo took place in a complex context for the US government, which was already fighting for a reform to reduce the acquisition of weapons. Days later, another event set the tone: the massacre at an elementary school in Texas that left 19 dead.
A good part of the Americans asked for more rigor when applying controls. President Joe Biden even signed a bipartisan bill to toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, help local law enforcement remove guns from people they deem dangerous, and beef up background checks on those who choose to buy them, among other things. other measures.
Specifically in New York, local legislators approved a law that deprives those under 21 years of age from purchasing a weapon and the sale of some types of bulletproof vests.
This week, the American Union was shaken by another act of violence. Michigan was the site chosen by an individual who entered the local University and killed three students who were on its premises.
The issue of weapons was key in the midterm elections, it will also be in the race for the White House by 2024. The Constitution of the United States contemplates the right of its citizens to bear and possess weapons. A powerful barrier for those who try to stop events like those that occurred in Buffalo.
With Reuters and AP
