Seattle-Area Man Sentenced To Prison For Racist Death Threats After Buffalo Mass Shooting
A Lynwood, Wash., man will spend two years in prison after racist threats against grocery stores in Buffalo, N.Y., the same city where a white supremacist killed 11 Black people in May in a gruesome mass shooting.
According to the Everett Daily Herald, in July, Joey George, 37, called Tops Friendly Markets stores in Buffalo, identifying himself as “Peter.” He would allegedly ask how many Black people were in the grocery store and said he would be on the news if he killed them all. In a series of calls, George said he was in the parking lot, demanded the store be closed or he would start shooting within five minutes, and told staff to "take him seriously” as he was "preparing to shoot all Black customers."
The threats happened just two months after Payton Gendron, now 19, entered a Tops Friendly location on the city’s East Side on May 14 with a military-style assault rifle and opened fire, killing 11 people, each of them Black. Last month, the self-identified white supremacist pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, murder, and attempted murder.
George was arrested on July 21 and told federal agents in an interview, “I never knew that store [Tops Friendly Markets ] existed until I seen the mass shooting. And I guess I was inspired to scare them.”
Federal prosecutors also alleged his racist threats didn’t start in July 2022. As early as September 2021, he reportedly phoned a marijuana dispensary in Maryland and said, “Black people do too much and have it coming.” The dispensary was forced to hire more security and closed for two days, which cost the business $50,000, according to the Department of Justice. Additionally, he reportedly called diners in California and Connecticut with threats to kill Black people.
Last month, George pleaded guilty in Seattle’s U.S. District Court to counts of interstate threats and interference with federally protected activity. On Friday (Dec. 16), U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez sentenced him to two years in federal prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods, who worked in consultation with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, said at sentencing, “What he did in this case was deplorable. What he did, and I use this term deliberately, and it’s one a prosecutor should only very rarely say — what he did was evil.
“For generations in this country, since its very founding, people of color have understandably been distrustful of law enforcement and distrustful of the criminal justice system,” he continued. “It too far often has not vindicated their rights and the harms perpetrated against them. This one sentencing, of course, does not erase that history, but it should be part of a recognition that this type of harm, this quantum of harm, this conduct, is one that is deserving of punishment.”
George’s public defender, Mohammad Hamoudi, claimed his client has autism and post-traumatic stress from a traumatic childhood. The U.S. Probation Office reported George began saying the N-word as a toddler, was “raised to hate,” and watched Fox News for 10 hours a day.
Hamoudi, requesting one year in prison, said at sentencing, “What happened here was reprehensible. These people, these communities of color, were scared, but I don’t think additional time in prison is going to right that wrong.”
Judge Martinez condemned George’s actions but called for more mental health resources “that would help stop someone like Joey George growing up in the environment that he grew up in.”
