'A gut blow': Families, officials react to death penalty decision for Tops mass shooter
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against the Tops mass shooter, and family members of victims from the shooting as well as public officials had varying reactions to the significant decision.
"I've said from the beginning the death penalty isn't something that I wish on anyone," Zeneta Everhart, the mother of shooting survivor Zaire Goodman, said Friday outside the courthouse. "But I've also said that if the U.S. attorney general decided to go that route for the death penalty, then so be it. Because for me, I believe in the greater good of that. There should be a trial. The country should see what happened that day. They should know what led up to that. They should hear all about the manifesto and the guns that he used and modified. The country has to hear that, so I'm satisfied."
Payton Gendron, now 20, is already sentenced to serve life in prison after he pleaded guilty to 15 state charges against him in November 2022. With New York not having the death penalty, the federal case is the only way for Gendron to be sentenced to death.
"To me, it was a gut blow," Michelle Fryson, niece of shooting victim Pearl Young, said. "I wasn't expecting that. Never did I ever wish that he would have the death penalty. Conversely, I was hoping that he would take some time to process things for a very long time."
The DOJ notified the court and Gendron's lawyers that “the United States believes the circumstances … are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified" in a Friday filing.
“They’re going after the death penalty. I mean, I understand it,” Mark Talley, whose mother Geraldine was killed in the attack, said. “A white supremacist killed 10 Black people. He went to the population with the highest Black population. I definitely understand it. It’ll make some people happy, some people glad. With me, I’m more of a dark person. If, God-willing, I live to 80, he lives to 80, I would have preferred to see him tortured for the rest of his life in prison, particularly here. Now he may get transferred, maybe Attica, Wyoming County, Orleans County. For me, I would’ve preferred he spend the rest of his life in prison, suffering every day.”
Some victims' families expressed in the past that they were against the death penalty for Gendron, but according to lawyer Terry Connors, who represents several family members, others pushed for it.
"The families that I speak for, incredibly intelligent, incredibly community-minded, but there was a split [on the death penalty]," Connors said. "Several of them felt that life in prison was the appropriate sentence, let him stay there and experience that, and there were others that thought the maximum punishment was warranted in this case. And if not in this case, then what case?"
Multiple Western New York public officials expressed their support for the DOJ's decision, including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and Erie County Sheriff John Garcia.
"I think it’s the right decision," Brown said in a statement. "10 innocent lives were taken. 3 others were injured, and the shooter traveled more than 3 hours away to commit this heinous crime in our community. I agree with the Justice Department for seeking the death penalty. The death penalty should apply as a deterrent to mass shootings, including racially motivated mass shootings. Mass shootings are all too prevalent in our country. While I am not ordinarily a proponent of the death penalty, I think people should know ahead of time that if you commit mass murder in the United States of America, the death penalty will apply.”
“The Justice Department has made the right decision to pursue the death penalty against the Tops shooter," Garcia said in a statement. "This racist, callous individual spent a great deal of time devising a plan to terrorize the City of Buffalo. I cannot imagine a more appropriate case for capital punishment. My thoughts, as always, are with the loved ones of the victims.”