Scene of shooting at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo (Photo Credit: WKBW)
The White man charged with murdering 10 people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo appeared briefly in court Thursday.
The Associated Press reports prosecutors said that the suspect, 18-year old Payton Gendron, has been indicted on a first-degree murder charge, but the felony hearing in Buffalo City Court was adjourned until June 9. He will remain held in jail without bail. An investigation by a Grand Jury will now follow.
In New York, prosecutors can charge a defendant with first-degree murder only under special circumstances, including when multiple people are killed in a single incident, like in the Buffalo shooting. The single count against the alleged shooter covers all 10 deaths at the supermarket.
Thirteen people in all were shot Saturday in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo. Federal prosecutors are also expected to charge the 18-year-old man with hate crimes.
The alleged shooter livestreamed the attack. Shortly before the attack, he posted hundreds of pages of writings to online discussion groups where he detailed his plans for the assault and his racist motivation.
Investigators have been examining those documents, which included a private diary he kept on the chat platform Discord.
The diary said the alleged shooter planned his attack in secret, with no outside help, but Discord confirmed Wednesday that an invitation to access his private writings was sent to a small group of people about 30 minutes before the assault began.
Some of them accepted the invitation. It was unclear how many read what he had written or logged on to view the assault live. It also wasn’t clear whether anyone tried to alert law enforcement.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia has said investigators were working to obtain, verify and review the suspect’s online postings.
Governor Kathy Hochul has authorized State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate social media platforms used by the alleged shooter to determine if they were liable for “providing a platform to plan and promote violence.”
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