By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department on Wednesday filed hate crime charges against the 18-year-old white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket in May.
Payton Gendron faces 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses, The New York Times reports.
The charges were announced on the same day that Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Buffalo.
“No one in this country should have to live in fear that they will go to work or shop at a grocery store and will be attacked by someone who hates them because of the color of their skin,” Garland said.
The complaint alleges 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.”
