Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - The Department of Justice announced that they intend on seeking the death penalty for Peyton Gendron, who killed 10 people in the racially motivated Tops shooting in May of 2022.
Gendron, now 20 years old, was sentenced to life without parole last February on the state charges he faced in connection to the mass shooting.
The families of victims of the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket had been called to federal court Friday for a "substantial update" in the legal case against the gunman, their attorney said.
And this was the result.
Ten Black people were killed and three other people were wounded in the May 14, 2022, attack.
The families had been waiting to hear whether prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Gendron, 20, who is charged with federally with hate crimes and weapons charges.
Note that Gendron already is serving multiple life sentences with no chance of parole after pleading guilty to New York charges of murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate.
New York does not have capital punishment but because the latest charges are at the federal level, a possible execution came into play.
"United States believes the circumstances in Counts 11-20 of the Indictment are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified," per a filing in federal court in Buffalo.