According to a federal criminal complaint, Payton Gendron, the White suspect in custody for shooting and killing ten Black people in a racially motivated attack at Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, told his family in an apology note that he committed the attack “for the future of the White Race.”
According to NBC News, authorities found the scribbled note in Gendron’s bedroom a day after he went to Tops Friendly Market to carry out the attack. Gendron, 18, killed ten Black people and injured three others in the May 14 mass shooting incident. Among the injured were one Black person and two White people.
Payton Gendron, who was detained at the scene of the incident, was charged with 26 federal hate crimes and firearms charges on Wednesday, June 15. He is also charged with 25 state criminal counts, including murder and attempted murder as hate crimes, as well as weapons possession.
According to the federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of New York, Gendron “apologized to his family for committing ‘this attack’ and stated that he ‘had to commit this attack’ out of concern “for the future of the White race.”
The FBI discovered the note after obtaining a federal search warrant to search his home in Conklin, New York. Among the other items discovered was a Tops receipt from March 8 after purchasing a candy bar. Authorities also discovered what appeared to be handwritten sketches of the store’s interior layout, according to NBC News.
According to authorities, Payton Gendron also went to the Tops supermarket three times on March 8 and drew two sketches during those visits. Prosecutors also stated that the suspect went to the store the day before the attack and “spent time in front and inside the store.” Tops Friendly Market is located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo.
It is also believed that Payton Gendron went to Tops about two and a half hours before the incident to find out how many Black people were in the store and where the security guard was, the complaint quotes.
According to the complaint, “Gendron’s motivation for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eradicating the white race, as well as to motivate others to carry out similar assaults.”