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Victims, Including Heroic Security Guard, Identified in Allegedly Racist Mass Shooting at Buffalo Supermarket

Alberto LuperonMay 15th, 2022, 11:52 am
 
Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, NY via WGRZ

Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, NY after a mass shooting. Police say the killer was racist. 11 of the 13 victims are Black.

Several victims have been identified after an allegedly racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.

This includes security guard Aaron W. Salter, 55–a recently retired police officer–who cops say heroically confronted the suspect at the cost of his own life. Another person slain was Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. Shopper Katherine Massey, 72, was reportedly there at the Tops Friendly Market to pick up groceries.

Pearly Young, 77, also died after going there to shop, according to WXIA reporter Madison Carter. Roberta A. Drury, 32, was at the Tops to get groceries for dinner, and Celestine Chaney, 65, was there to get strawberries for shortcake, according to family who spoke to The New York Times.

One of the injured survivors is Zaire Goodman, the son of a staffer for New York State Sen. Tim Kennedy.

Officers identified later on Sunday all 10 people who died and the three who survived.

Andre Mackneil, 53, Margus D. Morrison, 52, Heyward Patterson, 67, and Geraldine Talley, 62, died in the shooting.

Christopher Braden, 55, and Jennifer Warrington, 50, survived.

All told, authorities have said gunman Payton S. Gendron, 18, drove hours to Buffalo from the town of Conklin, New York to carry out the mass murder. Wearing body armor and armed with a high-powered rifle, he killed 10 people and injured three outside and inside the supermarket, officials said.

FBI Field Agent Stephen Belongia called the case an example of “racially motivated violent extremism” during a press conference on Saturday. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn obliquely referenced “pieces of evidence” showing racial animosity. Authorities say that Gendron live streamed the shooting. A white supremacist, racist, and antisemitic manifesto reportedly circulated online and was linked to Gendron.

An apparently legitimate screenshot from the footage shows a suspect–allegedly Gendron–holding a rifle, which features the N-word and the number “14” written on it, the latter of which is in reference to the white supremacist slogan. Though you can see a cropped version of the screenshot here, please note that it shows the moment when the attacker shoots a woman in the head.

11 of the victims were Black, and the remaining two were white, authorities said. For example, Salter and Whitfield were Black. Gendron is white.

Salter managed to shoot Gendron, but the armor saved the suspect, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

“He went down fighting,” the commissioner said Sunday of Salter. “He came in. He went towards the gunfire. He went towards the fight. He shot the individual, but because of his [the shooter’s] armor plating vest, it had no effect on him, and unfortunately, the suspect returned fire, and he [Salter] succumbed to his injuries. Like I said, he was a beloved member [of the police department] and we’re sure he saved lives yesterday.”

Gendron surrendered to police after they talked him out of putting the rifle to his neck, authorities have said.

“My mom was the consummate mom,” Garnell Whitfield said of Ruth, according to The Buffalo News. “My mother was a mother to the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same thing.”

She was a mother of four, and the devoted wife of a 88-year-old husband.

“She inspired me to be a man of God, and to do whatever I do the best I could do,” Garnell Whitfield said, describing her role in him making his way to the top of the Buffalo Fire Department. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.”

Katherine Massey had reportedly gone to the Tops that day to get groceries.

“She was a beautiful soul,” her sister Barbara Massey texted the News late Saturday.

Young was a grandmother, mother, and missionary who ran a food pantry, Carter said.

Roberta Drury was at the Tops for groceries as well.

“She was very vibrant,” sister Amanda Drury said, according to the Times. “She always was the center of attention and made the whole room smile and laugh.”

Chaney’s son Wayne Jones told the Times she was at the Tops with her sister because she wanted strawberries for shortcake.

“She loved those,” he said.

Her sister managed to escape into a freezer, but Chaney could not because of mobility issues, said Jones. He said, “she basically can’t run.”

One slain victim was a church deacon, friends said, according to the News. The article did not name the person.

Zaire Goodman was among the three survivors.

“To say that I’m heartbroken tonight doesn’t even do it justice,” Sen. Kennedy said Saturday. “I’m devastated. I’m angry. And I’m thinking about the families who won’t welcome a loved one home tonight. All because an individual filled with pure evil made a calculated to decision to senselessly take innocent lives. Let us be clear: this was a hate crime and an act of terrorism on our community. It was racially motivated, extremism in its most pure form.”

Goodman is recovering at home, the senator said in an update Sunday.

Update – 1:59 p.m.: We’ve added more information on several people who were killed in the shooting.

Correction – 5:48 p.m.: An earlier version of this article previously gave Zaire Goodman’s last name as Everhart.

Update – 12:36 a.m.: Police identified all 10 of the slain people and the three injured survivors.

[Screenshot via WGRZ]

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