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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 20 Mei 2022

Grand jury indicts man in Buffalo supermarket shooting

By CAROLYN THOMP- continues. The diary said Gendron
SON Gendron's lawyers also de- planned his attack in secret,
Associated Press clined comment, according with no outside help, but
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — to defense attorney Daniel Discord confirmed Wednes-
The white man accused of DuBois. day that an invitation to ac-
killing 10 Black people at Relatives of several victims cess his private writings was
a supermarket in Buffalo met privately with the Rev. sent to a small group of peo-
appeared in court Thurs- Al Sharpton before joining ple about 30 minutes before
day, standing silently dur- him at a news conference the assault began.
ing a brief proceeding at- outside of Buffalo's Antioch
tended by some relatives Baptist Church. Sharpton Some of them accepted the
of the victims after a grand said his civil rights group, the invitation. It was unclear
jury indicted him. National Action Network, how many read what he had
would cover funeral expenses written or logged on to view
Payton Gendron, 18, wore an for those killed in the attack. the assault live. It also wasn't
orange jail uniform, a mask "These hate crimes need to clear whether anyone tried to
and handcuffs. As he was led be stopped," Sharpton said. form Discord. dron's online writings said he alert law enforcement.
out, someone shouted "Pay- "We need to hold all that have At his initial court appearance planned the assault after be- New York Gov. Kathy Ho-
ton, you're a coward!" from aided and abetted the hate in last week, Gendron's court- coming infatuated with white chul on Wednesday autho-
the courtroom gallery. He this country accountable." appointed lawyer entered a supremacist ideology he en- rized the state's attorney gen-
is being held in jail without Sharpton said the innocent plea of "not guilty" on his be- countered online. eral, Letitia James, to inves-
bail. victims of the gunman "were half. He is due back in court Stephen Belongia, the FBI's tigate social media platforms
Assistant district attorney guilty of being Black." June 9. lead agent in Buffalo, said used by Gendron to deter-
Gary Hackbush said the first- Gendron, 18, livestreamed Five days after the shooting, agents were still working to mine if they were liable for
degree murder indictment, the attack from a helmet officials announced Thurs- piece together Gendron's "providing a platform to plan
which covers all 10 deaths, camera before surrendering day that evidence collection motives and how he came to and promote violence."
was handed up Wednesday. to police outside the grocery at the supermarket was com- his extremist views. In Buffalo on Thursday, Po-
Thirteen people in all were store. Shortly before the at- pleted. Tops Market presi- "An important part of these lice Commissioner Joseph
shot Saturday at the Tops tack, he posted hundreds of dent John Persons pledged to sorts of incidents is to tell the Gramaglia said social media
Friendly Market in a pre- pages of writings to online open the store as soon as pos- whole story that may not be users can also play a role by
dominantly Black neighbor- discussion groups where he sible, but said he could not heard in a courtroom at a lat- speaking up when they see
hood of Buffalo. Authorities detailed his plans for the as- give a timeline. er date — to understand, to people posting violent or
are continuing to investigate sault and his racist motiva- The massacre at the Tops the extent that you can, what threatening content.
the possibility of hate crime tion. supermarket was unsettling the motives are of this gun- "You need to out these peo-
and terrorism charges. even in a nation that has be- man, how he became radical- ple," he said at a briefing. "Ex-
District attorney John Fly- Investigators have been ex- come almost numb to mass ized, what he was reading, pose those that are putting
nn said his office would not amining those documents, shootings. All but two of where he was reading it, who out those types of extreme
comment on the case while which included a private di- the 13 people shot during he was inspired by," Belongia views and let us root them
the grand jury investigation ary he kept on the chat plat- the attack were Black. Gen- said at a news briefing. out."

Prosecutors detail charges against Trump’s inaugural chair

NEW YORK (AP) — Fed- the chair of former Presi- ing as an agent for the The details came in an up- from April 2017 stating that
eral prosecutors have dent Donald Trump's in- United Arab Emirates to dated indictment filed earlier while traveling in the Middle
spelled out more details augural committee, who's influence Trump's foreign this week in federal court in East, Barrack was the point
of the allegations against accused of secretly work- policy. New York City in the case of man to "pitch" the idea for
Tom Barrack, a wealthy busi- the massive investments to
nessman who acted as an in- top UAE officials like Sheikh
formal adviser to Trump. Mohammed bin Zayed Al
Prosecutors say Barrack Nahyan, the current presi-
sought to leverage lucrative dent who was then the crown
international business deals prince of Abu Dhabi.
with the United Arab Emir- The indictment also details
ates to benefit the political communications between
agendas of both the Trump an unnamed person running
campaign and the UAE. Bar- the Trump campaign, Bar-
rack is expected to be ar- rack and Rashid al Malik, a
raigned next week on a su- businessman from the UAE
perseding indictment charg- who prosecutors said acted
ing him with conspiracy, ob- as a conduit to that nation's
struction of justice and mak- rulers. Paul Manafort was
ing multiple false statements Trump's campaign manager
during a June 2019 interview at the time.
with federal agents.
Barrack was arrested last year A 2016 email assured al Ma-
and released on $250 million lik that language "that was
bail. A message was left with anti the Saudi Royal Fam-
his lawyer on Thursday. ily" was removed from the
The indictment says Barrack, Republican National Com-
a private equity manager mittee's platform. According
based in Los Angeles, was to the indictment, that was a
a key figure in UAE invest- reference to proposed word-
ments in a tech fund and real ing calling for the release of
estate totaling $374 million in sensitive documents gathered
2017. during the investigation of
The indictment quotes the terrorist attacks on Sep-
emails and text messages tember 11, 2001.