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Buffalo supermarket shooting: Gunman Payton Gendron pleads guilty to murder and hate-motivated terror charges

Buffalo supermarket shooting: Gunman Payton Gendron pleads guilty to murder and hate-motivated terror charges

An avowed white supremacist who shot dead 10 black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo has pleaded guilty to murder and hate-motivated terror charges.

Payton Gendron, 19, drove three hours from his home near Binghamton, New York, to the Tops Friendly Markets store where he strapped on body armour and then opened fire with a semi-automatic assault-style rifle.

He shot dead 10 people and injured three others in the mass shooting, which took place in May this year.

Police say Gendron left a racist manifesto online before the attack, which took place in a predominately black neighbourhood.

Eleven of the victims were black.

Image:
Payton Gendron in a police mugshot

In court, Gendron admitted all the charges against him, including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.

Gendron also admitted wounding three people who survived the attack, which happened in May this year.

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The teenager, who was handcuffed and wore an orange jumpsuit, showed little emotion through the 45-minute proceedings, which took place in a courthouse just two miles from the scene of the shooting.

He will spend the rest of his life behind bars, as he faces a sentence of life in prison without parole. The state of New York does not have a death penalty.

A sentencing hearing is expected at a later date.