Shooter in 2022 Buffalo mass shooting wants trial moved to New York City
Derek Gee/Buffalo News/Pool via Xinhua
(BUFFALO, N.Y) — Payton Gendron, the teenager who killed 10 Black people at the Topps supermarket in East Buffalo in 2022, claims he cannot get a fair trial in Western New York, so his federal death-penalty eligible case should move to New York City, his attorneys said in a new court filing.
Gendron pleaded guilty in November 2022 to state charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of federal crimes.
His federal trial is scheduled to begin in September.
Gendron’s attorneys argued that “due to the overwhelming amount of pretrial publicity, combined with the impact of this case on Buffalo’s segregated communities of color, it is impossible for Payton Gendron to select a fair and impartial jury in the Western District of New York.”
The lawyers asked for change of venue to the Southern District of New York, encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx and the northern suburbs, because it is “far enough from the local media market to be less impacted by it” and because “the S.D.N.Y. also has sufficient minority representation that has not been directly impacted by the shooting and its aftermath that a diverse and representative jury should be able to be selected.”
There was no immediate comment from federal prosecutors, who would be expected to file their opposition or consent in court papers.
Gendron has separately asked the judge to strike the death penalty as a possible punishment, arguing the decision to seek it had a “discriminatory intent and discriminatory effect.”
The judge has yet to rule.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations have been vandalized, suffered arson attacks and faced protests since the company’s CEO Elon Musk began his work with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, leading to mass layoffs of federal workers, authorities said.
The latest suspicious incident occurred overnight in Dedham, Massachusetts, where three Teslas were vandalized, according to the Dedham Police Department. Officials said “words had been spray-painted” on two Tesla Cyber-trucks, with all four tires of the trucks and a Tesla Model S being “reportedly damaged.”
Teslas were also damaged in Seattle on Sunday night, where crews had to extinguish a fire involving four electric vehicles, according to the Seattle Fire Department. Officials said other vehicles were moved away to prevent the spreading of the fire.
There were no buildings involved in the fire nor any injuries, according to the fire department.
The Seattle Police Department said the cause of the fire and whether or not foul play was a factor has not been determined. Other incidents in the U.S. were deliberately aimed at the company and it’s chief executive.
Six Teslas were also vandalized at a Tesla dealership in Lynnwood, Washington, on Saturday, with one black Tesla Cyber-truck graffitied with swastikas, according to the Lynnwood Police Department.
A Tesla charging station in South Carolina was targeted on Friday, where an unknown individual spray-painted an expletive directed at President Donald Trump along with “LONG LIVE UKRAINE” on the ground in red paint and threw homemade Molotov cocktails at the station, according to the North Charleston Police Department.
The suspect fled on foot before authorities arrived on the scene, police said.
Police “cut the power to the three charging stations that were burned by the homemade Molotov Cocktails,” officials said in a statement.
There have been no arrests made for this attack, police said.
Similarly, seven Tesla charging stations sustained heavy fire-related damage in Massachusetts on March 3, according to the Littleton Police Department. Officials determined the fires to be “deliberately” set, and the investigation is still ongoing to find the arsonist.
Shots were also fired at at Tesla dealership in Tigard, Oregon, where seven bullets damaged three cars and shattered windows on March 6, according to the Tigard Police Department.
Police said they are unaware of the motive of this specific incident, but were aware that “other Tesla dealerships have been targeted across Oregon and the nation for political reasons.”
On March 2, another Tesla dealership was spray-painted in Owings Mills, Maryland, where “NO MUSK” was written in red spray paint on the windows, followed by a symbol police originally thought was antisemitic.
“The graffiti was instead used against Elon Musk, and the graffiti was an ‘X’ inside of a circle, which we assume is for Twitter, which Musk owns,” Detective Anthony Shelton said in a statement obtained by Baltimore, Maryland, ABC affiliate WMAR.
Another incendiary event occurred in Colorado, where a woman was arrested on Feb. 27 after police caught her with explosives at a Tesla dealership, according to the Loveland Police Department. Lucy Grace Nelson, 40, was arrested after police launched an investigation following a series of vandalizations at the Tesla dealership, police said.
Nelson was charged with explosives or incendiary devices use during felony, criminal mischief and criminal attempt to commit a Class 3 felony, authorities said.
Protests against Tesla have also occurred at dealerships nationwide. Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs told ABC News the demonstrations and the company’s plummeting stocks — which have tumbled nearly 48% this year — can all “be tied to [Musk’s] time at DOGE.”
“It has been a distraction for the company and it’s been a problem for the brand,” Frerichs said.
Amid the crime sprees and protests, some Tesla owners have even placed stickers on their vehicles that read, “I bought this before Elon went crazy,” ABC News reported.
Trump said on Truth Social on Monday night that he is in support of Musk and is going to “buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk.”
Musk, the owner of X, has reposted some reactions that criticized the attacks and called the incident in Seattle “crazy.”
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene labeled the vandalisms as “domestic terrorism” and urged U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to “prioritize a thorough investigation into these matters” in a letter posted to X on Wednesday.
“These attacks, which seem to involve coordinated acts of vandalism, arson and other acts of violence, seriously threaten public safety,” Greene said in a letter posted to X.
A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The storm moves into the Golden State on Wednesday, with the heaviest rain falling on Thursday and Friday.
Some areas could see as much as 5 to 10 inches of rain while the Sierra Nevada mountain range could see 5 to 8 feet of snow.
A flood watch is in effect from the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles.
The biggest concern for mudslides and landslides will be on the burn scar areas from last month’s devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles. These burn scar spots could see 3 to 5 inches of rain over the next three days.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is preparing by clearing catch basins of fire debris; offering residents over 6,500 sandbags; setting up over 7,500 feet of concrete barriers; and having systems in place to capture polluted runoff.
Sheriff’s deputies “are helping residents prepare with sandbags and passing out mud and debris safety tips,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Wednesday. “Our homeless outreach teams … are actively notifying individuals living in flood-prone areas like the LA River, Coyote Creek and other key waterways, urging them to relocate.”
The sheriff urged residents to prepare now in the event evacuation orders are issued.
“Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed numerous, numerous instances in the past of swift-water rescues where people were caught in dangerous, fast-moving water, and obviously, we want to prevent that,” he said.
“Nothing that you have back home is worth your life. If you decide to stay in your property in an evacuated area, debris from the burn scar areas and storm may impede roads, and we may not be able to reach you,” he warned.
Landslides from burn scars could be a threat in the region for years to come.
Post-wildfire landslides can exert great loads on objects in their paths, strip vegetation, block drainage ways, damage structures and endanger human life, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Additionally, wildfires could destabilize pre-existing, deep-seated landslides over long periods. Flows generated over longer periods could be accompanied by root decay and loss of soil strength, according to the USGS.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As the Trump administration continues to vet potential candidates for top posts within the Justice Department, a powerful White House intermediary has been pushing to hire candidates that exhibit what he called “exceptional loyalty” to Trump, and his efforts sparked clashes with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top aide, Chad Mizelle, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The White House intermediary, Paul Ingrassia, complained directly to Trump about Mizelle, the Justice Department’s chief of staff, and suggested to the president that Mizelle is hurting Trump’s political agenda, sources said. But Ingrassia has since been reassigned to work with the Department of Homeland Security, a White House official familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Trump was reelected in November after promising to rid the Justice Department of what he alleged was political bias tainting federal law enforcement. Bondi has echoed that rhetoric, issuing a directive within hours of taking office to establish a “Weaponization Working Group” that she said would review all of the “politicized” investigations previously targeting Trump.
According to Ingrassia’s LinkedIn page, he became “President Trump’s White House Liaison for DOJ” in January. In private, to White House colleagues, he described himself as Trump’s “eyes and ears” at the Justice Department, with significant authority to help interview and select candidates for senior and lower-level positions, sources said.
Soon after the White House announced Ingrassia’s appointment, Ingrassia began occupying an office on the fifth floor of the Justice Department, in an area typically reserved for the most senior staff in the attorney general’s office, according to sources.
But in the wake of Ingrassia’s growing clashes with Mizelle, Mizelle took steps to have Ingrassia removed from the Justice Department and assigned to another agency — a move that irritated some senior White House officials, sources said. Ingrassia complained to associates earlier this month that he had been locked out of his Justice Department devices, said sources.
He is now serving as a liaison to DHS, helping with staffing there, the White House official told ABC News. Ingrassia did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, but another White House official said ABC News’ reporting on this matter is “riddled with falsehoods,” without indicating specifically what information they believe is false.
“Everyone is working as one unified team to staff the DOJ with patriots who are committed to Making America Safe Again,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement.
Infighting became almost commonplace during Trump’s first term, with one former Trump aide even titling his 2019 memoir about that administration, “Team of Vipers.”
Recently, Ingrassia told colleagues that finding candidates for Justice Department roles who are loyal to Trump is a top priority for him, and he privately claimed that even rank-and-file career prosecutors within the department are corrupt, sources told ABC News.
Ingrassia insisted to colleagues that anyone who worked under the Biden administration’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, or under attorney general Bill Barr during Trump’s first administration, should be presumed as unqualified to work for Trump’s new administration, sources said.
If taken literally and broadly, that could implicate nearly every current employee of the Justice Department.
Sources said Mizelle resisted Ingrassia’s hard-line approach, leading Ingrassia to accuse Mizelle of disrespecting him and improperly making unilateral personnel decisions, sources said.
Among the candidates that sources said Ingrassia has been trying to place within the Justice Department is attorney John Pierce, who represented many of the defendants who were pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Trump’s recent executive order related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Ingrassia pushed for Pierce to take over the office within the Justice Department that helps the White House vet pardon requests, the sources said.
In his first several weeks as Justice Department’s chief of staff, Mizelle himself has played a public role in promoting the Trump administration’s agenda. When Bondi held her first press conference two weeks ago to announce a civil lawsuit against state leaders in New York for their immigration policies that she said value “illegal aliens over American citizens,” Mizelle stood on stage behind her and helped answer a question from a reporter.
On Friday, Mizelle filed a publicly-released complaint with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, accusing a federal judge of “hostile and egregious misconduct” in his handling of a case challenging Trump’s recent efforts to limit or ban transgender service members. The judge has not yet responded to the complaint.
Ingrassia, before joining the Trump administration last month, led communications efforts for a nonprofit legal organization that promotes itself as “the answer to the useless and radically leftist American Civil Liberties Union,” and he was a writer for the right-wing website Gateway Pundit.
Trump was known to repost some of Ingrassia’s pro-Trump stories on social media, sources said.
Ingrassia graduated from Cornell Law School in May 2022, less than three years ago, according to his LinkedIn page. For several months in 2023, he worked as a law clerk and summer associate at the New York-based McBride Law Firm, which online promotes its work fighting “the Department of Justice’s malicious prosecution and horrific treatment of January 6th Detainees.”
Between 2021 and 2023, Ingrassia also worked for the law firm led by New York attorney Marc Kasowitz, who was previously a longtime personal attorney for Trump and represented him in the government’s investigations of alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government.
In January, after becoming the White House liaison to the Justice Department, he wrote on social media that the Trump administration has “a mandate from the American people [to] rebuild trust and confidence in our justice system by realigning it with its Constitutional prerogative.”
“The era of WEAPONIZED JUSTICE ends TODAY,” he wrote. “GOD BLESS AMERICA AND MAGA.”
During her confirmation hearing, Bondi assured senators that she would “not politicize” her office.
“I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered evenhandedly throughout this country,” she vowed.
