Editing Payton Gendron

Payton S. Gendron was born and raised in Conklin, New York. He has two younger brothers. He attended school in the Susquehanna Valley Central School District. In June 2021, he had been investigated by police for saying he wanted to commit a murder-suicide in a school assignment and threatening a [[school shooting]] at his high school. He was referred for a mental health evaluation and counseling, but was released shortly after.

Prior to the shooting, Gendron wrote a 180-page manifesto titled "The [[Great Replacement / White Genocide|Great Replacement]]", named after the racist theory that white Europeans are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-European people. He blamed Jews for non-white immigration and wrote that non-whites will commit genocide on the white race in the manifesto. The manifesto also includes details on the planned shooting and racist and anti-Semitic memes. Gendron also wrote about his admiration for previous mass shooters who were motivated by racism, especially [[Brenton Tarrant]]. Much of it appears to be plagiarized from Tarrant's manifesto, leading one news reporter to call Gendron's manifesto "a knockoff term paper that plagiarized past mass shooters".  

At approximately 2:30 p.m. on May 14, 2022, Gendron drove from Conklin to a Tops Friendly Markets in Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New York. He had been wearing military gear and body armor and was armed with three firearms: a semiautomatic rifle, a hunting rifle, and a shotgun. He had a head mounted camera through which he livestreamed the attack on Twitch. Gendron killed three people and wounded one in the parking lot. He then entered the store, where he shot eight more people, killing six of them, yelling out racial slurs as well. At one point, armed guard and former Buffalo Police Department officer Aaron Salter Jr. tried to stop him by shooting at him, but failed because of the body armor. Gendron returned fire and immediately killed him. Of the people he shot, 11 were Black and two were white. Shortly after, he was taken into custody by police in front of the store. He put his gun to his neck, but patrol officers talked him into dropping it.

The evening after the shooting, Gendron was arraigned in the Buffalo City Court. On the 19th, Gendron was indicted. During this hearing, one audience member yelled "Payton, you're a coward!". He pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of first-degree murder, but later changed his plea in November 2022, pleading guilty to murder, hate crimes and terrorism. The latter charges carry an automatic sentence of life without parole.