Hate crime charges have been filed against the white man accused of opening fire and murdering ten black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket last month.
According to the Department of Justice, the suspected gunman, Payton Gendron, 18, will face 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the Western District of New York, Gendron’s goal for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and extinguishing the white race, as well as to motivate others to execute similar assaults.
Ten counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving bodily injury and attempted murder, ten counts of using a firearm to commit murder during and in retaliation to a crime of violence, and three counts of using and discharging a firearm during and in retaliation to a crime of violence are among the charges leveled against Gendron.
The charges could result in the death penalty.