Buffalo shooting suspect called a 'coward' during a courtroom outburst
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A courtroom spectator on Thursday shouted "coward" at the 18-year-old white man indicted in connection with the slaying of 10 people who were gunned down in a racist rampage at a Buffalo supermarket.
A handcuffed Payton Gendron wore an orange jail uniform and facial covering and was surrounded by a half-dozen sheriff's deputies during his brief appearance in an Erie County courtroom.
A prosecutor announced that a grand jury on Wednesday had handed up an indictment against Gendron, although it wasn't immediately clear what the charge was and how many counts were listed in the complaint.
The hearing, which lasted about four minutes, came five days after the suspect's arrest at Tops Friendly Market, a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
A judge ordered Gendron to remain in jail without bail.
"Payton, you’re a coward!" a spectator, seated in court among loved ones of victims, shouted at Gendron as he was led out of court.
Gendron's defense attorney declined to comment outside court Thursday and didn't respond to messages left immediately after the hearing.
In a statement issued after the hearing, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn confirmed that an indictment had been handed up, but the prosecutors did not elaborate.
The grand jury's "investigation has not been completed," and prosecutors "cannot comment further until there is an indictment reported to the Court following a complete investigation," Flynn said.
Investigators have completed their work collecting evidence at the market, Mayor Byron Brown announced Thursday afternoon.
Tops Friendly Markets President John Persons promised that the location will reopen without committing to any timeline.
Owners of King Soopers in Boulder, Colorado, reopened that market in February, about 11 months after 10 people were gunned down on March 22, 2021.
The reopened Tops will include a memorial to those killed Saturday, Persons said.
"I'm committing to you certainly that we’re going to make every effort to get this store turned around and opened up quickly and in a very respectful way," Parsons said, adding that his store will continue running shuttles to nearby markets.
The suspect is alleged to have driven 200 miles from his home in Conklin, a small town in New York’s southern tier, to carry out the attack.
The victims have been identified as: Roberta Drury, 32; Margus Morrison, 52; Andre Mackneil, 53; Aaron Salter Jr., 55; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Heyward Patterson, 67; Katherine Massey, 72; Pearl Young, 77; and Ruth Whitfield, 86.
Three other people were injured.
Salter, a former Buffalo police officer, was working as a security guard at Tops that day and returned fire, striking the gunman, officials said. But the gunman wore tactical body armor, allowing him to keep shooting and kill Salter, authorities said.
The suspect is alleged to have posted a 180-page document revealing plans to attack Black people while citing the racist “great replacement theory” — which falsely says white Americans are being supplanted by nonwhite people through immigration, interracial marriage and, eventually, violence.
Many of the far-right activists who descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 chanted, “Jews will not replace us," among other bigoted slurs and slogans.
Katherine Koretski reported from Buffalo. David K. Li reported from New York City.
