Payton Gendron, 19, was sentenced this Wednesday to life in prison, without the option of parole, for the racist massacre that he carried out last May in a supermarket in Buffalo (New York). "You will never see the light of day as a free man again," Judge Susan Eagan told him when handing down the sentence.
Too late for prayers. The convict expressed regret for the massacre at Tops Friendly Markets, which caused ten deaths. He attributed his attack to content on the Internet and reiterated that he did not intend to inspire others to commit murders motivated by the color of their skin.
"I shot and killed those people because they were black," he acknowledged during the hearing. "Looking back, I can't believe it," she insisted. While he was saying these words, someone in the audience, where the relatives of the victims predominated, began to shout and curse him.
But this was only the second interruption of a very emotional hearing. Minutes before, the judge ordered the eviction of the room, after a man tried to attack Gendron.
This dramatic moment came after Katherine Massey, the sister of one of the victims, addressed the gunman in her testimony. “You have no idea about black people. We are human. We like our children to go to good schools. We love our children. We don't go into neighborhoods and kick people out," Massey said.
As Gendron continued to address, a man in a gray tracksuit ran towards the defendant, who was promptly evacuated from the room. The agents stopped the advance of that unidentified bystander.
"I am sure that everyone is disturbed by what we have seen today, I understand the emotions and the anger, but this cannot happen in a courtroom," the judge stressed upon returning from the interruption. "We must behave appropriately because we are all better than that," she added, and gave the order to continue the hearing with the testimony of victims and family members.
Christopher Braden, who was shot in the leg that day, stressed that the massacre has transformed his life. He was one of three wounded in the shooting. He said that he suffered from post-traumatic stress, that he has undergone four operations and still has to go through the operating room a couple more times.
“Your action changed my life, I have terrifying nightmares that make me wake up in the middle of the night and it takes me a long time before I even managed to get out of bed,” he explained.
Gendron's apology had zero impact on the family group of the deceased and the injured. "Don't mean any of that shit," snapped a woman upon hearing that the defendant blamed hate messages online.
The judge was expeditious. “There is no place for you, your ignorance, your hatred and your ideology of evil in our society. There can be no gratitude for you, no second chance. The damage you have caused is too great and the people you have affected are very valuable in the community”, stressed the magistrate.
