BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — In a last ditch effort to have the entire 27 count indictment against him tossed, Payton Gendron has filed a motion explaining the jury selected to determine his fate is not representative of Western New York.
He says there would be too few Black people on the jury.
"Payton Gendron hereby moves to dismiss the Indictment on the grounds that the petit jury pool fails to reflect a fair and reasonable cross section of the community resulting in continued systemic under-representation of African Americans in the Western District of New York’s jury lists," his attorneys write in this latest filing.
The motion was filed Monday, the day before jury selection is expected to start.
Gendron faces the possibility of death if he's convicted on the charges, connected to the 2022 mass shooting at Tops Friendly Markets on Jefferson Avenue. Ten Black people were shot and killed. Three others were hurt and survived.
Prosecutors say he fired 60 shots before he was finally taken into custody by Buffalo Police.
In 2025, Gendron tried to have the trial moved out of Buffalo.
Attorneys wrote, "it is likely that a large percentage of potential Black jurors will be excludable for cause."
They say it's because of a long history of segregation in "East Buffalo," the number of victims and the "centrality of the Tops Market as both a place to find sustenance and a community meeting place..."
That motion was ultimately denied.
Gendron planned his attack for months.
In the federal complaint filed against him, we learned investigators executed a search warrant at Gendron's house on May 15, 2022. That was one day after the shooting. They say they found a handwritten note in which the suspect apologized to his family for committing “this attack” and that he “had to commit this attack” because he cares “for the future of the white race.”
The special agent who filed this complaint explained the suspect signed the note and addressed it specifically to his family.
It goes on to explain, "the FBI also recovered from [the suspect's] bedroom a receipt for the purchase of a candy bar at the Tops on March 8, 2022, and handwritten sketches of what appear to be the interior layout of the Tops." Investigators say he visited the Tops several times before carrying out the attack on May 14. It also says "two sketches of the interior layout of the store" were created and believed to be the sketches found in the suspect's bedroom.
He's already serving life in prison after being convicted of state charges in 2023.
