(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — More than four years after he gunned down 10 Black people in a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, Payton Gendron’s federal trial reaches a crucial point on Monday in selecting a jury that will decide whether he lives or dies.

Gendron, who will turn 23 next week, has already pleaded guilty to state charges stemming from the May 14, 2022, attack at a Tops supermarket, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate. He is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gendron, according to his attorneys, has proposed pleading guilty to the 27-count federal indictment, including 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, but the Department of Justice has rejected his offer.

“The United States believes the circumstances in Counts 11-20 of the Indictment are such that, in the event of a conviction, a sentence of death is justified,” federal prosecutors said in January 2024, when they announced the decision to pursue the death penalty against Gendron.

On Monday, about 1,200 potential jurors who filled out an initial questionnaire were summoned to appear at the U.S. District Court in Buffalo to complete a more extensive inquiry to determine whether they can serve as fair and impartial jurors.

Based on their responses, Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo, who is overseeing the case, and the attorneys involved hope to whittle the potential jury pool down to several hundred.

Those who make the cut will be brought back in August to be questioned by the lawyers and judge, who are hoping to seat 12 jurors and at least six alternates for the trial scheduled to begin in October.

Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

Garnell Whitfield, the former Buffalo fire commissioner, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed in the supermarket attack, said he plans to attend Monday’s court proceedings.

Whitfield told ABC News that he’s hoping that the upcoming trial will expose those whom he says helped radicalize Gendron, including the social media companies that allegedly provided the addictive algorithms that fed Gendron’s hate of Black people.

“I’m more concerned with that than I am with him. He’s a dead man walking as far as I’m concerned,” Whitfield said.

Social media companies are not defendants in the trial, have not accused of any wrongdoing by prosecutors.

Whitfield and other relatives of those killed and wounded in the attack filed a lawsuit in May 2023 against several social media companies alleging they facilitated the teenage killer’s white supremacist radicalization by allowing racist propaganda to fester on their platforms. The outcome of the case is still pending in the state Supreme Court. The social media companies have denied all wrong doing.

During his sentencing in the state case in May 2023, Gendron apologized to the relatives of the victims, saying he was “very sorry for all the pain” he caused and “for stealing the lives of your loved ones.”

“I did a terrible thing that day,” Gendron said in court. “I shot and killed people because they were Black. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually did it. I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can’t take it back, but I wish I could, and I don’t want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did.”

Gendron planned the massacre for months — including previously traveling twice to the Tops store he targeted, a more than three-hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York — to scout the layout and count the number of Black people present, according to state prosecutors. Wearing tactical gear, body armor and wielding an AR-15-style rifle he legally purchased and illegally modified, Gendron committed the rampage on a Saturday afternoon when prosecutors said he knew the store would be full of Black shoppers.

The attack was caught on a Tops supermarket surveillance camera and a helmet camera worn by Gendron that he used to livestream on Twitch. Before the attack, he also posted a racist screed online containing the names of past mass shooters he admired.

Brian Buckmire, an ABC News legal analyst, said Gendron’s attorneys are aiming at seating jurors who can set aside the defendant’s guilty plea and decide the case based on the facts presented at trial.

“This is not a case of guilt or innocence; this is a case … of attempting to save his life,” he said.

Buckmire said that in the current phase of jury selection, potential members of the panel will likely be asked about their personal beliefs about the death penalty.

He noted that the judge in the case has already denied a request from the defense to move the trial from Buffalo in Erie County to Rochester in Monroe County.

“So, it’s deep in the heart of where all of this harm happened,” Buckmire said.

Buckmire said the defense is facing an uphill battle and will likely focus on trying to persuade the jury that Gendron should not be put to death.

“From a fact-based standpoint, it’s hard to say he’s not guilty,” Buckmire said. “I think the only argument here and the only strength of anything they can make out here is he doesn’t deserve the death penalty because of his age [and] the influences he had.”

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(SENATOBIA, Miss.) — A child was killed after an officer fired upon a vehicle following a reported shoplifting at a Walmart in Mississippi, authorities said.

An adult was also critically injured in the shooting, which occurred Sunday afternoon outside a Walmart in Senatobia, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.

Law enforcement officers who responded to a shoplifting call at the Walmart encountered two adults allegedly fleeing from the store with a child and going into a vehicle, the bureau said.

“Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one,” the bureau said in a statement, noting that the information is preliminary. “An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”

The individuals in the vehicle went to a local hospital, where the child was pronounced dead, according to the bureau. One of the adults also had critical injuries, it said.

Authorities did not provide further details on the shooting victims, including the age of the child killed.

The Senatobia Police Department and Tate County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the shooting incident, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which did not provide details on the officer who discharged the weapon or how many times the gun was fired.

No officers were seriously injured, the bureau said.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting and will ultimately share its findings with the state’s attorney general’s office.

“This is an open and ongoing investigation. No further comment will be made at this time,” a spokesperson with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation told ABC News on Monday in response to multiple questions on the incident.

Senatobia is located in northwestern Mississippi, about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.

The Senatobia Police Department said the officer-involved shooting occurred just after 2 p.m. Sunday.

“We are committed to full transparency,” the Senatobia Police Department said in a statement. “As the investigation progresses and facts are verified, we will share as much information as possible.”

A Walmart spokesperson said they are working with law enforcement amid the investigation.

“We’re saddened by what took place at our Senatobia, MS, store,” the spokesperson said. “The safety of our associates and customers is a top priority.”

Senatobia Alderman Chris McConnell urged residents to “rely on official information and allow the investigative process to proceed.”

“Please join me in praying for everyone involved, their families, our law enforcement officers, first responders, and the entire Senatobia community,” he said in a statement.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance on Monday spoke about the settlement that would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and pave the way for 60 days of technical negotiations to end the war, saying it has been signed “digitally.”

Vance said the agreement marked a moment in which Iran has a “two-path” option.

“On the one hand, if they continue to try to rebuild their nuclear program, this deal ensures they will never have the resources to do that,” Vance told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an interview on Monday. “On the other hand, if the Iranians are willing to give a long-term commitment — along with proper verification — to giving up that nuclear weapon, we’re willing to welcome them into the world economy, to lift some sanctions and to turn over a new leaf in that relationship.”

Iranian officials have long publicly maintained that the country’s nuclear program operates only for civilian purposes, although Western officials have said their uranium enrichment has gone beyond what would be needed for civilian use. Iran has also said it does not have ambitions to create nuclear weapons, a claim that American officials have disputed.

Vance’s interview followed a Sunday social media post from President Donald Trump, who said the United States and Iran reached an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire in the conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Vance said that the deal had already been digitally signed by parties, but also maintained that there would be a signing ceremony on Friday — though it’s unclear exactly what the Friday signing will mean if the deal has already been signed digitally. The vice president did say that the full text of the agreement would be released at some point this week and that negotiations were expected to continue.

The exact contents of the agreement is still unclear, and he remained vague about what specifics were in the the text of the already-signed agreement.

When pressed by “Good Morning America” Anchor George Stephanopoulos about whether this deal was the president going back on promises that Iran would need to provide “unconditional surrender,” Vance responded that “what this deal fundamentally does is it reopens the Straits of Hormuz.”

“You see, oil prices have already come down substantially just in the last 24 hours,” Vance added.

Vance also said that the deal includes provisions that Iran will stop funding terror groups, though he did not expand on what exactly that means.

As a potential deal was reportedly coming together on Friday, Vance took to social media to push back on what he described as “fake information” about the potential terms, which he said were expected to include financial incentives for Iran. Vance said funds would not be released to Iran “for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting.”

Vance also said that since the deal was digitally signed on Sunday, no money for Iran has been released, “and that won’t change, George,” Vance said.

Vance on Monday said forward momentum for the deal would hinge on Iranian officials “doing the right thing,” including allowing for some form of verification to show that Iran is not working toward building a nuclear weapon.

“This is fundamentally a win-win for the American people,” Vance said. “What the president has said is he wants it to be a win for the Iranian people as well. But that requires some real trust building and some real positive conduct from the Iranian political system.”

“We’re going to see if that happens,” he added. “If it does, they’re absolutely going to find the president of United States and the entire team a willing partner, to make their country more prosperous.”

Stephanopoulos pressed Vance about whether Israel’s comments that they are not party to the agreement amid their continued hostilities in Lebanon, asking Vance whether that might complicate the peace settlement.

“Well, George, everything’s going to complicate the deal, as you know, in this region of the world, even a ceasefire, sometimes they’re a little bit dirty,” Vance said. “It goes from shooting a lot to shooting a little to shooting not at all. But what we fundamentally believe is that this is going to be a good deal for the people of Israel, for the people of the Gulf, the people of America, and again, potentially for the people of Iran as well.”

A landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, followed two years of negotiations. It imposed restrictions on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran, in that 2015 deal, agreed to international monitoring and to keeping its nuclear program “solely for peaceful purposes,” according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Trump withdrew the U.S. that deal in 2018, during his first term.

“There are all of these ways I could explain the ways this deal is fundamentally better for the American people than the JCPOA,” Vance said on Monday. “But the fundamental difference is that the Gulf Coast coalition, our Arab partners in the region, they hated the JCPOA, because they felt that it emboldened Iran to be a bad actor. They love this deal because they feel that it’s going to create a totally new dynamic in the Middle East.”

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.

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