Federal death penalty trial begins for Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron

Jury selection is set to begin Tuesday in the federal death penalty trial of Payton Gendron, a white supremacist whose May 14, 2022, attack on a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Buffalo, New York, left 10 Black people dead — making it what researchers believe was the deadliest hate-driven shooting of Black people carried out by a single gunman in at least a hundred years.

Gendron, now 23, is already serving life without parole after pleading guilty to state murder and domestic terrorism charges in 2023. The federal charges against him include more than two dozen hate crime counts and more than a dozen firearms counts. His defense team will not dispute his guilt. Their sole objective is to keep him off death row.

Nothing will change the fact that Payton Gendron will die in prison. At trial, we will offer mitigating evidence about Payton that the jury needs to consider in making its decision. Nothing we say or do is intended to be disrespectful or insensitive to the victims, the survivors, or their loved ones.— Federal Public Defender Office

Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department chose in 2024 to seek the death penalty — marking the first capital case handled by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, who had earlier imposed a moratorium on federal executions, according to CNN. Gendron and his attorneys put forward a guilty plea in the federal case in return for a life sentence, an offer the Justice Department turned down.

On May 14, 2022, Gendron traveled more than 200 miles from Conklin — a predominantly white, rural town — to reach Buffalo. At 18 years old, he discharged roughly 60 rounds from a semiautomatic rifle at employees and shoppers inside the store. Footage captured him offering an apology to a white employee he had shot in the leg. He gave himself up to officers as he walked out of the supermarket. All 10 people he killed were Black, ranging in age from 32 to 86: Celestine Chaney, Geraldine Talley, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, Andre Mackneil, church deacon Heyward Patterson, Ruth Whitfield, Roberta Drury, Margus Morrison, and Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer who had been working as a security guard. Three others were wounded.

Investigators found social media posts and writings in which Gendron planned the attack to frighten non-white and non-Christian people into leaving the United States. His writings promoted the unfounded 'great replacement theory,' which holds that people of color will displace white people through higher birth rates and immigration.

The families of the victims are divided on whether execution is the right outcome. Wayne Jones, whose mother Celestine Chaney was killed, says he would rather see Gendron spend decades in prison than face a death that ends his suffering.

I really think that he should just sit and have to think about it year after year after year and just be miserable. When I was younger, I probably was more prone to say 'kill him.' But, at this point, I mean, he's still got well another 20-30 years of appeals.— Wayne Jones, son of victim Celestine Chaney

Buffalo Common Council member Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire — now 25 — survived the shooting with shrapnel still in his neck, takes a different view. She ran for office more than a year after the attack and says she sees the case as domestic terrorism.

I've never been like out here like, 'Yay! Go for the death penalty.' That's never been me. Ten people died that day in an egregious way and in an awful, terrible, traumatic way.— Zeneta Everhart, Buffalo Common Council member and mother of survivor Zaire Everhart

This isn't a shooting over a robbery or a domestic violence situation. This is domestic terrorism. It is important we go after the death penalty in this case. But if he doesn't end up getting it, I know that justice will be served.— Zeneta Everhart, Buffalo Common Council member

Garnell Whitfield, who lost his 86-year-old mother Ruth in the shooting, says he has no position on capital punishment in this case, telling CNN "this is the federal government doing what they deem they have to do." Over the past four years, he has collaborated with church groups, victims' rights organizations, and other partners in efforts to confront white nationalist movements and racial violence. He says he hopes trial testimony reveals more about the radicalization and social media influences behind the attack.

Seating a jury is expected to be a lengthy process. The federal jury pool draws from a far wider area than the state trial did — roughly from just west of Syracuse to Buffalo and all counties north and south, according to John Flynn, the former Erie County district attorney. Jury selection is expected to last more than a month, with opening statements potentially beginning in early December, according to Spectrum Local News.

Don't get me wrong, it'll be difficult, but I'm confident at the end of the day, they'll be able to find 12 people and a number of alternates to be fair and impartial. You'll be surprised how many people either don't know much about this case at all, or very, very little.— John Flynn, former Erie County District Attorney

The shooting sits within a broader pattern of anti-Black violence in the United States. According to hate crime analyst Brian Levin of the California Association of Human Relations Organizations, FBI hate crime data has shown Black people to be the leading numerical target in every year since the agency began tracking such offenses in 1991. Anti-Black bias incidents peaked at 3,670 in 1996. FBI data released in August showed more than 2,800 anti-Black hate crime incidents in 2025 — a figure nearly three times that of incidents targeting Latinos — even as total hate crime incidents dropped 7% from 2024 to 2025.

Unfortunately, he fits the pattern of young, mostly White males undertaking targeted massacres which are then justified by manifestos, which are also part of a continuing chain that references prior attacks often but seeks to encourage future ones.— Brian Levin, hate crime analyst, California Association of Human Relations Organizations

Why it matters — The trial will determine whether a man already guaranteed to die in prison is also put to death — a question that has divided the victims' own families and will test how the federal government prosecutes racially motivated mass violence.

Reported by theguardian.com, cnn.com, spectrumlocalnews.com, wivb.com