The white supremacist responsible for the racist attack at a Buffalo, New York supermarket last May was rushed by a man in the courtroom during his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Per a regional report from WGRZ, the moment occurred during a statement given by the sister of Katherine Massey, one of 10 victims killed in the attack at a Tops supermarket on May 14 of last year.
“You don’t know a damn thing about Black people,” the sister, Barbara Massey, said amid emotional remarks delivered at Payton Gendron’s sentencing. “We’re human. We like our kids to go to good schools. We love our kids. We never go to neighborhoods and take people out.”
At that point, a man standing alongside the woman ran toward the convicted murderer. Police temporarily escorted the killer away, while the man was ultimately removed from the hearing.
After the hearing resumed, Gendron—who previously pleaded guilty—was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. While these charges were at the state level, as noted by Reuters, he’s still facing separate federal charges in connection with the racist attack.
Last June, the Department of Justice announced that Gendron had been charged in a criminal complaint with federal hate crimes. The following month, a federal grand jury was announced to have returned a 27-count indictment in which Gendron was charged with 14 violations of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, as well as 13 firearms-related counts.
A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year included comments from Gary Whitfield Jr., whose mother Ruth Whitfield was among those killed in the attack. Speaking directly to lawmakers, Whitfield urged action on the ongoing threat of domestic terrorism.
“I ask every one of you to imagine the faces of your mothers as you look at mine and ask yourself, is there nothing that we can do?” He said at the time. “Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?”
