A young white supremacist was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday January 15 by a New York State court. He had killed ten black people in a supermarket in the city of Buffalo in May.
Nine months after the carnage which deeply shocked the country, Payton Gendron appeared this Wednesday for the first time before American justice and the relatives of the victims, who let their distress burst out, but refused to give in to hatred. ” We all know the motives of your racist crime, but we are here to tell you that you have failed “, Launched Simone Crawley, whose grandmother Ruth Whitfield died while shopping.
The 19-year-old pleaded guilty in November to racist murders and acts of terrorism. On May 14, 2022, after months of preparations, he went to a buffalo supermarket in combat gear, armed with an AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle and a camera broadcasting his actions live on the internet. He had moved methodically through the parking lot and then into the store, shooting at customers and employees. And had left ten dead, aged 32 to 86, and three injured.
“I shot and killed people just because they were black »
In a short intervention, Payton Gendron assured to be “ sorry for the pain that he caused. ” I can’t say how much I regret all the decisions that led me to do a terrible thing on May 14, when I shot and killed people just because they were black. “. ” I believed in things read online and acted out of racist hatred », « I don’t want to be an inspiration to anyone “, he added.
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” There is no place for you or your stupid, hateful and evil ideology in a civilized society. “Launched Judge Susan Eagan during the hearing, after having long denounced the racist past of the United States. ” There can be no pity for you, no understanding, no second chances “, she added before pronouncing the sentence, incompressible: “ You’ll never see the light of day again as a free man “.
Several months before the massacre, Payton Gendron had written in his messages and a racist, supremacist and conspiratorial manifesto, that he wanted to kill black people and that he was targeting a poor and isolated neighborhood in Buffalo, due to its high proportion of African Americans. He had also made a reconnaissance trip before the massacre in Buffalo, 300 km north of his home.
Recurring gun debate
The carnage caused amazement in the United States, doubled ten days later by another semi-automatic rifle massacre perpetrated by an 18-year-old young man who killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
The first month of US gun violence in 2023, as of #February1st:
•1,606 gun deaths
•2,756 gun injuries
•52 mass shootings
•66 children shot
•436 teenagers shot
•95 incidents of defensive gun use
•131 unintentional shootings
~2,112 suicides [CDC estimate]— The Gun Violence Archive (@GunDeaths) February 1, 2023
These killings, the list of which has since continued to grow, have revived the recurring debate about a lack of gun regulation in the United States. The Gun Violence Archive site has already identified, since January 1, six gun dramas that have left at least four dead, and 71 shootings that have left at least four injured.
With the United States allowing double prosecution, Payton Gendron is also charged with “ racist crimes by the federal justice system, which has not ruled out at this stage seeking the death penalty.
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(With AFP)