Payton Gendron, the teen who opened fire at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022, killing 10 people, has been sentenced to life in jail.
He was handed 10 life sentences, one for each victim.
There was chaos at the sentencing when a man in the audience charged at Payton Gendron.
An impassioned victim impact statement from the sister of one of the victims of the Buffalo supermarket shooting was interrupted when an unknown person lunged at the teenage shooter, disrupting the courtroom.
The man was quickly restrained and the proceeding resumed after about 10 minutes, with more emotional outpouring from people who lost loved ones or were themselves wounded in the attack.
“You killed my sister,” Barbara Mapps told Payton Gendron, 19, at the sentencing at Erie County Court on Wednesday morning, Feb. 15.
Judge Susan Eagan said the sentences would run concurrently, according to News4Buffalo.
“You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again,” she told Gendron.
Mapps’ sister, Katherine Massey 72, was one of the 10 people killed during Gendron’s racism-fueled rampage at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022.
Most of the victims, including Massey, were black.
Gendron pleaded guilty in November last year to several murder and hate-motivated terror charges.
“Kat would do anything for anyone at any time,” Mapps told Gendron, her voice trembling with emotion.
Addressing the killer from behind a podium, Mapps frequently gestured toward Gendron as she raised her voice.
Gendron, whose hatred was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, cried during some of the testimony and apologized to victims and their families in a brief statement.
Some angrily condemned him; others quoted from the Bible or said they were praying for him. Several pointed out that he deliberately attacked a Black community far from his nearly all-white hometown.
“You’ve been brainwashed,” Wayne Jones Sr., the only child of victim Celestine Chaney, said as sobs rose from the audience. “You don’t even know Black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet, and it was a big mistake.”
“I hope you find it in your heart to apologize to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason,” Jones said.
“There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances,” Judge Susan Eagan said as she sentenced him.
