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Federal prosecutors filed hate crime charges against the white gunman who allegedly killed 10 people in a racist attack at a western New York supermarket last month, officials said Wednesday.
The suspected Buffalo shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, will face 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses, which carry the potential of the death penalty, the Department of Justice announced.
“Gendron’s motive for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks,” according to the criminal complaint filed in the Western District of New York.
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The charges include 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of using a firearm to commit murder during and in retaliation to a crime of violence and three counts of using and discharging of a firearm during and in retaliation to a crime of violence.
Gendron on May 14 allegedly shot 13 people — 11 of whom are Black and two who are white — at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly African American neighborhood of Buffalo, police said.
This is a developing story. Please refresh here for updates.
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