The 19-year-old admitted to shooting ten people for hating black people. The bereaved made emotional appeals to the man, who could end up facing the death penalty.
After the racially motivated murder of ten people in the US city of Buffalo, the perpetrator has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Judge Susan Eagan announced this after emotional statements from the bereaved. “There is no place in a civilized society for you and your ignorant, hateful and evil ideologies,” the judge told the accused. “You will never see the light of day a free man again”.
The 19-year-old perpetrator cried in the hall and apologized: “I shot people and killed them because they were black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online – and acted out of hatred.” He doesn’t want anyone to be inspired by his crime.
Previously, the convict had apparently escaped an attack in the courtroom. TV pictures showed how a man with a gray sweater tried to get to him. Security personnel stood in his way, and the accused was taken out of the room to be on the safe side. After a short break, the hearing continued.
“Do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to live. I want you to think about it every day of your life,” the niece of one victim said in court. “It hurts so much but I will pray for you.” Another bereaved said: “I want to strangle you and leave my fingerprints on your neck.”
The white shooter pleaded guilty to domestic terrorism and murder as hate crimes in November in upstate New York. The man, heavily armed, shot himself in front of and in a supermarket in Buffalo in mid-May last year. In addition to ten fatalities, there were at least three injured, 11 of the 13 victims were black.
The case was the first in New York State to use a new state law against domestic hate-motivated terrorism. The minimum sentence for convictions thereafter is life imprisonment without parole. The man also faces a federal conviction. He faces the death penalty if the US Department of Justice decides to push this forward.