Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron pleads guilty to grocery store massacre

The white teenager who gunned down 10 people in a hate-fueled Buffalo supermarket massacre in a predominantly black neighborhood pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges.

Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea at the Erie County Court — just two miles from where he massacred his victims on May 14 as part of a crazed plan to take out as many black people as possible.

His plea to the string of state charges guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison. He still faces federal charges.

Wearing handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, the teen showed little emotion throughout the 45-minute hearing – apart from occasionally clenching his lips.

He answered “yes” and “guilty” as the judge referred to each victim by name and asked whether he had killed each of them due to their race. Gendron also pleaded guilty to wounding three people who survived at the attack.

Some of the victim’s relatives, as well as Buffalo Mayor Bryon Brown, watched on as Gendron admitted his guilt.

“This critical step represents a condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14,” Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker, said in the wake of the plea.

“It is our hope that a final resolution of the state charges will help in some small way to keep the focus on the needs of the victims and the community.”

Gendron had livestreamed the attack at the Tops Friendly Market from a helmet-mounted camera as he roamed the aisles in tactical gear, shooting at store employees and shoppers with an AR-15-style rifle.

His gun was marked with race-fueled venom, including the phrase “Here’s your reparations,”, authorities said.

In the lead-up to the attack, the teen had posted a manifesto online that outlined his rambling white supremacist views and revealed he had been planning the attack for several months.

He also left a chilling note for his parents admitting he was carrying out the attack because he cared “for the future of the white race,” federal prosecutors said in their criminal complaint.

BigDawg via REUTERS

Silex

Erie County District Attorney’s Office via AP

Gendron was taken into custody in the store’s parking lot in the wake of the massacre after leaving through the front entrance.

He had initially pleaded not guilty to the state charges, including murder, murder as a hate crime and domestic terrorism motivated by hate.

In July, Gendron pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime and firearms charges that could call for his execution if convicted. The Justice Department hasn’t yet revealed if it would seek capital punishment.

Gendron’s sentencing for his guilty plea has been set for Feb. 15.

With Post wires