Final jury selection begins in Buffalo shooter federal trial

Key Points:

• Wayne Jones Sr., whose mother was killed in the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting by white supremacist Payton Gendron, opposes the death penalty, preferring Gendron to spend years in prison reflecting on his actions.
• Gendron faces federal trial with potential death penalty charges for the racially motivated attack that killed 10 Black victims; he has pleaded not guilty to hate crime and firearms charges but admitted guilt in a prior state trial.
• The attack was driven by Gendron's adherence to racist conspiracy theories, including the "great replacement theory," and is one of the deadliest anti-Black hate crimes in recent U.S. history.
• Hate crimes against Black individuals remain the most reported bias incidents in the U.S., with over 2,800 incidents in 2025, highlighting ongoing racial violence and domestic terrorism concerns linked to online radicalization.
• Victims' families are divided on the death penalty, with some advocating for it as justice for domestic terrorism, while others focus on addressing the broader issues of radicalization and societal hate that led to the shooting.