Suspect in the Buffalo mass shooting has been indicted on federal hate crime charges

The white gunman who killed 10 Black people and injured three other individuals at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., in May was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday on hate crimes and firearm charges. Here, a memorial for the supermarket shooting victims is set up outside Tops on July 14. (Joshua Bessex/AP)

Joshua Bessex / Joshua Bessex

The white gunman accused of targeting and killing 10 Black people and injuring three other individuals at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday on hate crimes and firearm charges, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Payton Gendron, now 19, is facing 27 counts — including 10 hate crimes resulting in death and three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill, along with 13 counts of using, carrying or discharging a firearm — following the deadly racist attack at the Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

“The Justice Department fully recognizes the threat that white supremacist violence poses to the safety of the American people and American democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release.