US Buffalo Mass Shooting Perpetrator Indicted on 25 Counts

The man who fatally shot 10 Black people and injured three others at a Buffalo supermarket in the U.S. state of New York on May 14 is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday afternoon on 25 counts of indictment, media reports said.

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A grand jury on Wednesday indicted the white supremacist on charges of a domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree as a hate crime, attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

This development marks the first time a grand jury in New York State has ever indicted a defendant on the charge of a "domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate in the first degree," according to a law enforcement source.

The indictment of Payton Gendron has been reported to the court and the 18-year-old defendant will be arraigned in Erie County Court on the indictment on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson from the district attorney's office was quoted as saying.

Gendron was initially charged with a single count of first-degree murder on May 19.

U.S. federal authorities are also investigating the shooting as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism, said Stephen Belongia, the special agent in charge of the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The suspect drove about three hours from his home to a Black-predominated community in Buffalo on May 14, and staged the mass shooting at a supermarket on Jefferson Avenue on the East Side.