Buffalo supermarket shooting: Accused gunman indicted on first-degree murder

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The man accused of opening fire in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store has been indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder.

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Payton Gendron, 18, appeared in court Thursday and was silent through the short proceedings, The Associated Press reported.

He remains in custody and will be back in court on June 9 to be arraigned on the indictment, The Washington Post reported.

During a previous court appearance, Gendron’s court-appointed lawyer said his client pleaded not guilty.

Gendron is accused of shooting 13 people, killing 10 of them on Saturday at Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo.

>>Previous coverage: Buffalo supermarket shooting: What we know about the 10 victims

All but two of the victims were Black.

He live streamed the attack before he surrendered outside of the store. Just before opening fire, Gendron posted his writings detailing his plans and motive, which law enforcement says was racial, AP reported.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating it as a possible hate crime, the Post reported.

Gendron wrote that he planned the ambush after becoming infatuated with white supremacist thinking he found online.

>>Previous coverage: Buffalo supermarket shooting: Suspect was asked to leave store night before shooting

In his writings he called himself a white supremacist, a fascist and an anti-Semite, CNN reported. He said he targeted the supermarket because it had the highest concentration of Black people in the area. He traveled three hours from his Conklin, New York, home to carry out the attack, The Washington Post reported.

He said he planned it in secret and had no help, but he did send an invitation to a small group of people to access his private writings about half an hour before he started shooting, the AP reported. Some accepted the invitation but officials are not sure how many actually read the documents and if anyone tried to alert the authorities.

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Gunman opens fire in Buffalo supermarket People hug outside the scene after a shooting at a supermarket on Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y. (Joshua Bessex/AP)

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