Payton Gendron

Payton Gendron (born May 27, 2003, Conklin, New York) attacked the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in the predominantly Black East Side neighborhood of Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2022, killing 10 people and wounding 3. All 10 victims were Black; Gendron had driven approximately 200 miles from his home in Conklin specifically targeting Buffalo's East Side because of its demographics. He live-streamed the attack through a helmet-mounted camera on Twitch. He left a 180-page manifesto explicitly framed as continuing Brenton Tarrant's 2019 Christchurch attack, adopting Tarrant's format and ideological argument. Gendron pleaded guilty to all counts in November 2022 and was sentenced to life without parole in state court in February 2023, with federal hate crime convictions adding additional consecutive life terms. Juraj Krajčík named Gendron as his "final nudge" before the October 2022 Bratislava LGBTQ+ bar attack; Nikita Casap also cited Gendron as an influence before his February 2025 Wisconsin killings.¹

The Buffalo Supermarket Attack

Gendron drove from Conklin to Buffalo on May 14, 2022, arriving at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue at approximately 2:30 PM. He wore tactical gear and a camera, opened fire in the parking lot, and then entered the store. He killed a retired police officer employed as a security guard, Aaron Salter Jr., who fired at Gendron but was unable to penetrate his body armor. Of the 13 people shot, 10 died. Gendron then surrendered to police at the scene.

The Twitch stream was active for approximately 2 minutes before the platform removed it. The footage was subsequently redistributed widely through Telegram and other platforms, following the same pattern established after Christchurch.

The 10 victims were: Aaron Salter Jr., Roberta Drury, Margus Morrison, Andre Mackniel, Katherine Massey, Heyward Patterson, Celestine Chaney, Geraldine Talley, Ruth Whitfield, and Pearl Young.²

Manifesto and Radicalization

Gendron's manifesto was structured as an explicit homage to Tarrant's "The Great Replacement," borrowing Tarrant's format of a question-and-answer self-interview alongside strategic and operational arguments. It adopted "great replacement" ideology, citing the same French conspiracy theory framework. Gendron had radicalized primarily through 4chan's /pol/ board and had been consuming accelerationist content from an early age, with no documented connection to a specific organized network prior to the attack.

His manifesto included specific targeting research (why Buffalo, why this supermarket), tactical guidance, and an explicit framing of the attack as a contribution to an ongoing acceleration campaign. The document's detailed radicalization self-history became a significant data point for researchers studying online radicalization pathways independent of organizational membership.

Conviction and Sentencing

Gendron was arrested immediately after the attack without resistance. He was charged in state court with ten counts of first-degree murder as a hate crime and related charges. He pleaded guilty in November 2022. In February 2023, Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole on each count, to run consecutively.

Federal prosecutors separately charged Gendron with hate crimes, obstruction of religion, and use of a firearm in a hate crime. He pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2023 and received additional life sentences from U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford.¹

His documented role in the inspiration chain confirmed by court evidence includes Krajčík's naming him in the Bratislava manifesto and Casap's references in the "Accelerate the Collapse" document before his parents' murders. The Terrorgram Collective's channels circulated Gendron saint cards in the same format as Tarrant materials.³