After the racially motivated killing of ten people in the US city of Buffalo, the perpetrator has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Judge Susan Eagan announced this on Wednesday after emotional statements from the bereaved, as US media reported unanimously.
According to the CNN TV channel, the 19-year-old perpetrator had previously cried in the hall and apologized: “I shot and killed people because they were black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did that. I believed what I read online – and acted out of hatred.” He didn’t want anyone to be inspired by his crime.
Previously, the convict had apparently escaped an attack in the courtroom. TV pictures showed how a man with a gray sweater tried to get to him. Security personnel stood in his way, and the accused was taken out of the room to be on the safe side. After a short break, the hearing continued.
The white shooter pleaded guilty to domestic terrorism and murder as hate crimes in November in upstate New York. The man, heavily armed, shot himself in front of and in a supermarket in Buffalo in mid-May last year. In addition to ten fatalities, there were at least three injured, 11 of the 13 victims were black.
