Jury Selection Begins in Federal Death Penalty Trial Over Buffalo Supermarket Shooting

Developing story. Updated 14:19 UTC on Oct. 13, 2026.

Jury selection began on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York, in the death penalty case against Payton Gendron, the gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Tops Friendly Markets store on May 14, 2022.

Gendron, 23, is already serving life in prison without parole. He pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, and a state judge sentenced him on Feb. 15, 2023. The federal case is separate. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, which New York state law does not allow but federal law does for certain charges.

A jury pool cut from more than 1,000 names

More than 1,000 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires for the court this summer. Lawyers for both sides agreed to strike about 500 names, leaving roughly half the pool for in-person questioning by the judge and the attorneys this month. The court will try to remove candidates who hold a fixed position for or against the death penalty in this case. Each side is entitled to 20 peremptory strikes, which let lawyers dismiss a candidate without giving a reason.

Selection is expected to take six to eight weeks, which puts opening arguments in December at the earliest. The trial will run in two phases. The first decides guilt. The second, if it is reached, decides the sentence.

The defense is not contesting guilt

Gendron faces federal hate crime charges and firearms charges. The Justice Department announced in 2024 that it would seek the death penalty. His defense team says it will not dispute his guilt. Its stated goal is narrower: to persuade the jury to spare him from execution. The federal public defender office said in a statement that Gendron will die in prison either way, and that the defense will present mitigating evidence about his background and mental condition. Defense lawyers plan to call four experts on that question.

Prosecutors, for their part, plan to present 911 calls, police body camera footage and surveillance video at trial, according to court reporting. An appeals court recently restored three aggravating factors the government wants the jury to weigh: the harm done to surviving victims, an intent to incite further violence, and the racial motive behind the killings.

Families of the victims disagree on execution

Wayne Jones, whose mother Celestine Chaney was killed in the store, plans to attend the trial. He does not want Gendron executed. He has said he would rather see him spend year after year in prison living with what he did.

Zeneta Everhart, a Buffalo Common Council member whose son Zaire Goodman survived a gunshot wound to the neck, takes a different view. She calls the attack domestic terrorism and supports the government seeking the death penalty, while saying justice will be served either way.

What happened on May 14, 2022

Gendron was 18 when he drove more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue, in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo. He had scouted the store in advance. He fired about 60 shots at shoppers and workers, hitting 13 people. Ten died, all of them Black, aged 32 to 86. He surrendered to police outside the store.

The 10 people killed were Celestine Chaney, Roberta Drury, Andre Mackneil, Katherine Massey, Margus Morrison, Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Ruth Whitfield and Pearl Young. Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer, was working as a security guard at the store.