(Bloomberg) -- The man accused of killing 10 people and wounding three in a racist rampage in Buffalo, New York, was charged with federal hate crimes, according to the US Justice Department.
Payton Gendron, who allegedly used an AR-15 assault-style rifle during the May 14 attack in a supermarket, was already facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted, after becoming the first person in the state to be charged with domestic terrorism motivated by hate. The new, federal charges, filed Wednesday, comprise 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses and carry a potential death penalty.
Gendron, a White 18-year-old, did research to find a neighborhood with a large Black population and drove hours to get there, prosecutors claim. All 10 who died were African American.
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
Read More: Buffalo Massacre Suspect Faces Life in Prison for Racist Rampage
Wednesday’s charges come as President Joe Biden’s administration makes a renewed push for legislation to restrict the purchase of assault-style weapons by people who have been flagged as risks, after the Buffalo massacre and one 10 days later at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Momentum for legislation picked up this week as a group of US senators announced a deal on a package of measures including federal funds to boost mental health services and school safety, some enhanced background checks for younger gun buyers and money to help states implement red flag laws. The package has early support from 10 Senate Republicans, the minimum needed to advance legislation in the evenly divided chamber if all 50 Democrats are on board.
Attorney General Merrick Garland traveled to Buffalo on Wednesday to announce the federal charges and to meet with family members of the victims and visit a memorial at the site of the mass shooting. The Justice Department previously said it was investigating the shooting “as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said the greatest domestic threat currently comes from racist violent extremism and from white nationalism in particular.
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