A white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was sentenced to life in prison without parole during an emotional hearing Wednesday — after the courtroom descended into chaos when a man tried to rush the killer.
The sister of one of Payton Gendron’s victims was giving a gut-wrenching victim impactment statement when an unknown person lunged at the teenage shooter.
“You killed my sister,” Barbara Mapps told Gendron,19, at his sentencing at Erie County Court on Wednesday morning.
Mapps’ sister, Katherine Massey, 72, was one of the 10 people killed during Gendron’s racism-fueled rampage at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, 2022. Most of the victims, including Massey, were black.
“I want personally to choke you, to see my fingerprints on your neck,” the grieving sister told her sibling’s murderer, repeating the vow she made to The Post in the aftermath of the sickening attack last year.
As Mapps shouted and pointed at Gendron, a man in the audience wearing a light gray sweatsuit rushed past her toward Gendron, presumably to attack him.
“You don’t know what we’re going through,” the man shouted as he was led away by court officers.
After police subdued the would-be attacker, an unidentified woman was also heard yelling that Gendron was a “f—ing coward.”
“I understand the anger … but we cannot have that in the courtroom,” Judge Susan Eagan counseled from the bench before Gendron was returned several minutes later.
Gendron pleaded guilty last fall to several murder and hate-motivated terror charges, and was sentenced Wednesday to 10 concurrent life sentences.
“There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances,” Judge Eagan said as she sentenced him.
Several other family members also confronted their loved ones’ killer with the pain he has caused.
“Do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to stay alive. I want you to think about this every day of your life,” Tamika Harper, a niece of victim Geraldine Talley, told Gendron.
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“Think about my family and the other nine families that you’ve destroyed forever.”
Gendron, who remained seated throughout the readings, locked eyes with Harper and cried during her statement.
“You learned this on the internet, and it was a big mistake,” Wayne Jones Sr., the only child of victim Celestine Chaney, told the shooter.
“I hope you find it in your heart to apologize to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason.”
Gendron eventually delivered his own remarks to the court, which were also interrupted by a grieving woman.
“I believed what I read online and acted out of hate, and now I can’t take it back, but I wish I could, and I don’t want anyone to be inspired by me,” he said, while also acknowledging that he “shot and killed people because they were Black.”
As he was speaking, a woman in the audience stood up and protested that “we don’t need” his statement, and stormed out of the room.
Gendron also faces separate federal charges that could carry a death sentence if the US Justice Department chooses to seek it. His defense attorney said in December that Gendron is prepared to plead guilty in federal court as well to avoid execution. New York state does not have the death penalty.
With Post wires
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