Breaking: Government Seeking Death Penalty For Tops Mass Shooter

It was just about two years ago when a home-grown domestic terrorist drove across New York State and allegedly killed ten people and wounded three others at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

That shooting, which occurred in May 2022, left a scar on Western New York that may never heal and has forever changed our community. The alleged shooter, Payton Gendron, was immediately caught after the shooting and taken into custody. Since then, Gendron has pleaded guilty to 15 New York State Supreme Court charges.

Once that was completed, the shooter was turned over to Federal law enforcement officials who charged him with 26 crimes that could carry the death penalty.

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In a surprising mood, the US Department of Justice announced that they would seek the death penalty against Gendron.

Payton Gendron intentionally and specifically engaged in an act of violence, knowing that the act created a grave risk of death to a person, other than one of the participants in the offense, such that the participation in the act constituted a reckless disregard for human life, and Roberta Drury, Pearl Young, Heyward Patterson, Ruth Whitfield, Celestine Chaney, Aaron W. Salter, Jr., Andre Mackniel, Margus Morrison, Katherine Massey, and Geraldine Talley died as a direct result of the act... The United States believes the circumstances... are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified.
-US Department of Justice

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In response to this announcement, WIVB-TV communicated with various family members of the people who had been killed by the shooter, and there were mixed feelings, but most are opposed to the death penalty.

They’re going after the death penalty. I mean, I understand it... A white supremacist killed 10 Black people. He went to the population with the highest Black population. I definitely understand it. It’ll make some people happy, some people glad. With me, I’m more of a dark person. If, God-willing, I live to 80, he lives to 80, I would have preferred to see him tortured for the rest of his life in prison, particularly here. Now he may get transferred, maybe Attica, Wyoming County, Orleans County. For me, I would’ve preferred he spend the rest of his life in prison, suffering every day.
-Mark Talley, Son of Geraldine Talley

A Federal trial date hasn't been set for the shooter yet.