UPDATED: 11:30 a.m. ET
An unidentified man ran toward a convicted racist mass murderer in an apparent attempted attack while one of the victims’ family members addressed the court during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday morning in Buffalo, New York.
Video footage from inside a courtroom where Payton Gendron was being sentenced for killing 10 Black people in a supermarket shooting last year showed the sister of Katherine Massey speaking passionately before the man entered the frame and ran toward Gendron.
A group of police officers stopped the man before he reached Gendron, who was quickly ushered out of the court. The officers had gathered around the defendant in apparent anticipation of a potential physical confrontation while Barbara Massey delivered her victim impact statement to the court.
Watch below.
Following the victim impact statements, Gendron was formally sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
Original story:
The racist, convicted mass murderer who killed 10 Black people last year in a targeted shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, specifically because Black people shopped there, is expected to be sent to prison for the rest of his life during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday. But that doesn’t eliminate a very real option of the death penalty stemming from separate federal hate crimes he still faces.
Payton Gendron, 19, is scheduled to be sentenced after some of the fatal victims’ family members and survivors from the shooting deliver statements about the domestic terror that took place at Tops Friendly Market May 14, 2022.
Back in November, Gendron pleaded guilty to all 25 counts in the state indictment and waived his right to appeal. He was charged with murder, murder as a hate crime and domestic terrorism motivated by hate, all of which come with an automatic life sentence following convictions.
But Gendron also faces far more hefty federal hate crime charges. If convicted of those, it could…
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