A white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last year was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after listening to relatives of his victims express their pain and rage. The sentencing hearing for Payton Gendron was disrupted when he was charged at by a man in the audience who was quickly restrained. It resumed after about 10 minutes, with more emotional testimony from people who talked about losing loved ones in the attack. Gendron, whose hatred was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, cried during some of the testimony and apologized in a brief statement. He pleaded guilty in November to crimes including murder and domestic terrorism motivated by hate, a charge that carried an automatic life sentence. The 19-year-old wore bullet-resistant armor and a helmet equipped with a live-streaming camera as he carried out the 14 May attack with a semiautomatic rifle purchased legally but modified so he could load it with illegal high-capacity ammunition magazines. Gendron faces separate federal charges that could carry a death sentence if the US justice department chooses to seek it. His defense attorney said in December Gendron was prepared to plead guilty in federal court as well to avoid execution. The disruption in the sentencing hearing on Wednesday happened as Barbara Massey Mapps excoriated Gendron for killing her 72-year-old sister, Katherine Massey. As Mapps shouted and pointed at Gendron, a person in the audience took a few steps toward him before getting held back. “You don’t know what we’re going through,” the man shouted as he was led away by court officers. For several minutes, family members hugged and calmed each other. The judge, Susan Eagan, ordered Gendron back in and let the proceeding resume after about 10 minutes, admonishing everyone to “conduct ourselves appropriately”. “I understand that emotion, and I understand the anger, but we cannot have that in the courtroom,” Eagan said. The sentencing was a chance for loved ones of the dead, as well as people wounded in the attack, to express their grief and anger. Some angrily condemned Gendron. Others quoted from the Bible or said they were praying for him. Several condemned him for his deliberate attack on a Black community far from his nearly all-white hometown. “You’ve been brainwashed,” Wayne Jones Sr, the only child of the victim Celestine Chaney, said as sobs rose from the audience. “You don’t even know Black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet, and it was a big mistake. “I hope you find it in your heart to apologize to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason.” Kimberly Salter, the widow of the security guard Aaron Salter, said she and her family were wearing “red for the blood that he shed for his family and for his community, and black because we are still grieving”. Christopher Braden, a Tops Friendly Market employee who was shot in the leg, said he was haunted by seeing the victims as he was carried out of the store. “The visions haunt me in my sleep and every day,” he said. Gendron began crying himself. There were only three survivors after he shot 13 people. The victims ranged in age from 32 to 86. In documents posted online, Gendron said he hoped the attack would help preserve white power in the US. He wrote that he picked the Tops store, about a three-hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. The mass shooting, and another less than two weeks later that killed 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school, amplified calls for stronger gun controls, including from victims’ relatives who traveled to Washington to testify before Congress. New York legislators quickly passed a law banning semiautomatic rifle sales to most people under age 21. The state also banned sales of some types of body armor. Joe Biden signed a compromise gun violence bill in June, intended to toughen background checks, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws making it easier to take weapons from people adjudged to be dangerous.