Payton Gendron

Payton Spencer Gendron (born June 20, 2003) is an American mass murderer, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi who committed a mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, in which he killed 10 people and injured 3 others, on May 14, 2022. Gendron, who was 18 years old at the time, had traveled three and a half hours to the supermarket from his hometown of Conklin, New York.

Gendron livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch until the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. He was inspired to do the attack after learning about numerous white supremacist mass murderers through 4chan during isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. His main inspiration was Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings, who also livestreamed his attack online.

On May 14, 2022, at around 2:30 p.m., Gendron arrived at the supermarket, where he shot 13 people, 11 of whom were black and 2 of whom were white. At 2:36 p.m., Gendron had gone to the front of the building, which was surrounded by law enforcement, where he was arrested. He had planned to attack more locations if he hadn't been arrested and escaped. He was taken into custody and charged with over 40 federal and state counts, including first-degree murder and terrorism. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges on May 19.

On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes in an attempt to avoid the death penalty. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole. Federal charges are still ongoing, and the federal prosecution also expressed their intention to seek the death penalty. His federal trial is set to begin on August 17, 2026.