Buffalo mass shooter sentenced to life in prison after emotional hearing

The victims’ family members had the opportunity to address the shooter before his sentencing. Some said they did not wish the death penalty for him.

“I get it man, you’ve been brainwashed,” said Wayne Jones Jr., the son of victim Celestine Chaney. “I’ve been there. You don’t even know Black people. I hope you find it in your heart to apologize.”

“You took 53 years from me,” said Yvonne Elliott, brother of victim Andre Mackniel. “You took the last of my line. He was all I had left. I will never understand why. I don’t think anyone will. But you will get what you have coming from you.”

Others were visibly more angry. As Barbara Massey, the sister of victim Katherine Massey, was angrily berating the gunman, an unidentified man behind her suddenly lunged at Gendron, causing authorities to pull him out of the room and temporarily delay the sentencing.

The gunman’s lawyer, Brian Parker, also appeared emotional during a statement to the court, saying that social media and lack of gun control laws were partly responsible for his client’s violent act.

“The racist hate that motivated this crime was spread through online platforms, and the violence that was made possible was in part due to the easy access of assault weapons,” Parker said. “Still, our client is responsible for this crime. He will spend the rest of his life locked away and eventually he will die in state prison.”

Before delivering the sentence, Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan condemned systematic racism in the U.S. and delved into the role white supremacy played in the massacre.

“The ugly truth is that our nation was founded and built, in part, on white supremacy,” she said. “The effects of these policies, some current and other decades and centuries old, created the segregation in our city, and enabled our defendant to research and identify his target to maximize the impact of his evil intent. All of these policies and systems, either sponsored or tolerated by the government and implemented by individuals were designed to destroy the very fabric of family life, opportunites for success, the creation of generational wealth, and even the mere existence of hope in communities of color.”

On May 14, the gunman opened fire on shoppers at the Tops supermarket using a legally purchased AR-15 rifle that he had illegally modified.

The perpetrator live streamed the attack on Twitch for nearly two minutes before the company took down the stream. He had previously published a racist manifesto, where he voiced support for the far-right “Great Replacement” theory that white Americans are being culturally drowned out by people of color, and expressed admiration for other mass shooters, including the gunman who killed 51 people at a New Zealand mosque in 2019.

Prosecutors said that he had previously traveled twice to the Tops supermarket – a more than two hour drive from his New York home – to count the number of Black customers at the store.