A judge told the Tops grocery store gunman that there would be 'no mercy' or 'second chances' for him as she sentenced him to life in prison for the shooting

• The gunman who killed 10 at a Tops in Buffalo, New York, in May was sentenced to life in prison.
• The 19-year-old gunman was not granted the possibility of parole during his sentence.

A judge sentenced the man who killed 10 people in the May 2022 Tops grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York, to life in prison in an Erie County courtroom Wednesday morning, saying she would give him "no mercy" or second chances.

There is no possibility for parole for the 19-year-old gunman who pleaded guilty in November.

"There is no place for you or your ignorant, hateful, and evil ideologies in a civilized society. There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances," Judge Susan Eagan said in court as she handed down the gunman's sentence.

"The damage you have caused is too great, and the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again," Eagan added.

The gunman offered a short apology in court Wednesday, saying he was "very sorry for the pain I forced the victims and their families to suffer through" and blamed "what I read online and acted out of hate" as motivation for his actions.

During his apology, a man in the courtroom began to scream and curse at the shooter.

The gunman, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, opened fire in a Tops grocery store while live streaming the massacre on Twitch on a Saturday afternoon. He shot and killed 10 people in what police have called a racially motivated act, having driven up to the community specifically to target Black people. Three others were injured in the shooting.

The man was arrested the same day and was charged with one count of domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder, and a weapons possession charge in the mass shooting. He pleaded guilty to those charges months later in November, CNN reported at the time.

During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, family members of slain victims and injured victims offered statements about their loved ones who were lost at the hands of this man.

"You are a cowardly racist," Simone Crowley, whose grandmother Ruth Whitfield, was killed in the shooting, said.

"You recorded the last moments of our loved ones' lives to garner support for your hateful cause, but you immortalize them instead," Crowley said. "We are extremely aware that you are not a lone wolf, but a part of a larger organized network of domestic terrorists. And to that network, we say we as a people are unbreakable."

Zeneta Everhart, whose son Zaire was injured in the shooting but survived, said Wednesday that "Only a weak human takes out their pain on others."

She continued: "The world says you have to forgive in order to move on. But I stand before you today to say that will never happen."

During Barbara Massey Mapps' testimony in which she shouted at the gunman for killing her 72-year-old sister, Katherine Massey, a man in the courtroom charged at the gunman but was quickly stopped by security.

"You don't understand what we're going through," the man shouted as he was ushered out of the room.

The gunman was rushed out of the room as chaos ensued.

After a short break, the sentencing resumed, with Eagan saying "I understand the emotion and I understand the anger, but we cannot have that in the courtroom."

Christopher Braden, who was shot in the leg during the attack and has so far had four surgeries to repair his leg, said everything about May 14, 2022 "still haunts me," adding that he cannot put into words the "terror" he felt that day when he was "attacked by you."

"Visions haunt me in my sleep every night and most days," Braden said. "I cannot get those memories out of my head. Nighttime is the worst for my PTSD. I have night terrors that jerk me awake in the middle of the night and I am unable to calm back down to fall asleep."

Despite what he's lived through, Braden has embraced his role as a survivor.

"My scars and pain remind me of how strong I've become," he said. "You haven't taken away my will to live, you haven't broken my spirit."