In an emotional court scene where an audience member rushed Tops Market killer Payton Gendron during sentencing after being found guilty and charged with the murder of 10 Black people and injuring 3 last year. Senior Editor James R. Sanders reports.
Payton Gendron, 19, on Wednesday was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 2022 mass murder of 10 Black people at the Tops Market in Buffalo, N.Y.
Gendron said he killed the victims because they were Black.
As the sentence was being handed down, a man in a gray jogging suit rushed Gendron, but was stopped by several police officers who escorted him off the premises. Later, an attorney for the people said he would not be charged.
The sentencing, which was presided over by Judge Susan Eagan, said, “I am sure that you are all disturbed by the physicality that we’ve seen in the courtroom here today. I understand that emotion. And I understand that anger. But we cannot have that in the courtroom.”
Grendron shot Christopher Braden in the leg. He was one of the 3 that survived. During the hearing, he appeared and told Gendron that it takes 15 minutes to get out of bed.
“Your actions completely changed my life. … I have night terrors that jerk me awake in the middle of the night,” Braden said.
Gendron apologized to the families of the victims who were in attendance, to which a woman in the audience screamed, “You don’t mean none of that shit.”
In a tearful plea to the families, Justice Eagan thanked the family for being present, and then addressed Gendron. “The damage you have caused is too great, and the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again,” she said.