There are a few moments that stand out in particular following the sentencing of Payton Gendron in Erie County Court this week. The sentence itself, is not among them, as it was long known Judge Susan Eagan was bound to impose life in prison without parole.
"Mr. Gendron, please stand," Eagan said as she launched into the emotional sentence.
Eagan sternly imposed the sentence on the monster who drove to Buffalo May 14, 2022 and gunned down 13 people in a Tops Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, killing ten.
But the way in which she imposed the sentence was memorable and sent a chilling message inside the courtroom and to the audience listening and watching both near and far. Eagan injected a personal note about each of the victims of the horrific racially-motivated Tops mass shooting into her formal sentence.
The words Judge Eagan spoke just before sentencing Gendron seemed to have more of an impact on the audience than the sentence itself. Even more so than the mumbling and startling words Gendron himself spoke in admitting, "I shot and killed people because they were Black."
Eagan, as anyone would imagine, stated, "I've spent a lot of time thinking about this case." Although there was no latitude in the sentence she could impose, there was latitude in how she would handle such an emotionally-charged courtroom and the tone in her decision messaging.
The judge spoke for 9 minutes leading up to the sentence and referenced the 13 victims in the murderous rampage May 14, 2022. "They are not the only victims," Eagan noted as she walked us through the far-reaching impacts of the racial terrorist attack at Tops that day. "There are thousands that have been traumatized, directly and vicariously by this defendant's actions," she said.
Eagan pointed to countless racial injustices in society in her address to the court and beyond and concluded, "We have a long way to go.
There have been mixed reviews of the judicial address from the bench, but the tactic of delivering a pointed message in sentencing rulings is not uncommon. "Very appropriate," is how longtime WBEN legal analyst Paul Cambria characterized Eagan's handling of the sentence and her words to the court.
I surmise that most who were taken aback in some way by the message have not been exposed to judicial rulings in a courtroom setting and weren't expecting a call to action that goes beyond the sentencing itself.
Judges do have that leeway and it's commonplace in court.
There were two other moments Wednesday that struck me in such a way that I 'stopped in my tracks' as I heard these encounters.
One of those moments came as I was in a crammed conference room listening to civil defense attorney Ben Crump speak, and he was asked about how he felt when Gendron appeared to be 'scared' as he was ushered from the courtroom when Barbara Massey's son lunged at Gendron during her emotional plea to the killer. Crump quickly stood back from the podium and made way for Zeneta Everhart who anxiously made her way to the microphone.
'He should be scared,' exclaimed Everhart. "Every day for the rest of his life, he should be scared. He should be fearful. He should not be able to sleep," she said. Everhart is not in favor of the death penalty, despite the fact her son Zaire was wounded in the attack.
It was a profoundly moving moment.
Later in the day Wednesday, I found myself in another conference room, this time it was Barbara Massey who stopped me stone cold as I asked her how she felt as Gendron spoke in court earlier in the day.
Massey's sister, Katherine Massey, was killed in the attack on 5/14.
"You going to keep it on there," Massey asked? She said she wouldn't swear, but she prepared me for her blunt remarks. "I wanted to choke him," she said emphatically as she looked me in the eye. "From the bottom of my heart, that's how I felt," she added. "I have not felt this good, since 5/14," said Massey. "He should be gone."
Powerful words from both Massey and Everhart and both easy to understand, from my perspective. One wishes the killer dead. The other wishes he lives scared for the remainder of his life.
There is indeed a 'tug of war' of opinions and emotion following the sentencing of Gendron. None of it is good. And I don't think any of it is 'wrong'.
It's incumbent upon us all to take learning moments from the powerful emotions that have been on display since 5/14. We don't all have to agree, we all just need to listen.
I was there the night of the attack. I was there for the sentencing. And I was there to witness the pain on the faces of broken family members as they tried to explain how they feel.
And I agree with Judge Eagan.
'We have a long way to go'.
