Ten people were killed and three were injured in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Saturday afternoon after a gunman wearing tactical gear opened fire around 2:10 p.m.
Police are investigating the attack at Tops Friendly Markets as a hate crime: 11 of those shot were Black, two were white, according to WGRZ in Buffalo.
Those killed:
Celestine Chaney, 65, had six grandchildren and a great-grandchild, according to WBNS. She was also a breast cancer survivor. The New York Times said she was a single mother who retired after years making suits and then baseball caps. Her son, Wayne Jones, told Insider he usually shopped with her, but didn’t this time because he’d had surgery.
“We went grocery shopping, that was what we did. As she got older, I’d take her grocery shopping. The one time we didn’t go together, there’s a tragedy,” he said.
Roberta Drury, 32, had moved to Buffalo about eight years ago to help her brother, who had leukemia, and work in the restaurant her family owned, her brother Christopher Moyer told CNN. Moyer described her as a happy person who liked to do things with her family and “always wanted to do the right thing.”
Her sister, Amanda Drury, told The New York Times that Drury was “vibrant” and “always the center of attention and made the whole room smile and laugh.”
Andre Mackneil, 53, of Albany, New York, was reportedly in town visiting relatives and stopped at the market to pick up a surprise birthday cake for his grandson, according to USA Today. His cousin, Clarissa Alston-McCutcheon, described him as “just a loving and caring guy. Loved family. Was always there for family.”
Katherine Massey, 72, was a former reporter with the Buffalo News. Her extended family called her “Aunt Kat.” “I hope that every nation, every community, just people at home, they teach their kids to love instead of hate,” one of her relatives told WGRZ. Buffalo News described Massey as a civil rights and education advocate.
Last year, Massey wrote a letter to the editor for the Buffalo News. In it, she asked for more gun regulation and expressed concern about urban violence and mass shootings.
Margus D. Morrison, 52, was a father of three, but little other information is yet available on him.
Heyward “Tenney” Patterson, 67, father of three, was a deacon in his church who regularly drove people to the grocery store to do their shopping. A friend, Leonard Lane, told WKYC, “A lot of them don’t have cars, no buses. He’s just taking them home, back and forth. ... He loved his children, any man can see. And he loved God, that’s all he wanted to do, help people.” CNN reported he waiting outside the store when he was shot.
Terrell Clark, his nephew, told CNN that Patterson was a happy man who always wore a smile, enjoyed telling jokes, singing at his church and “always dressed to impress.”
Aaron Salter, 55, was a retired police lieutenant in the Buffalo Police Department. When he retired, he took at a job as a security guard at the market. According to news reports, he fired at the assailant, but the bullet did not pierce the armor-plated vest the shooter wore. Instead, Salter was shot and killed.
“He was a hero who tried to protect people in the store,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN Sunday.
Geraldine Talley, 62, was described by her niece Lakesha Chapman to CNN as “the life of the party.” Chapman said Talley had two children, loved to bake and always planned the family’s reunions. “She was just a lover. I mean she didn’t meet a stranger and that’s why this hurts so much,” she said.
Ruth Whitfield, 86, was the mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. She had just visited her husband in a nursing home and stopped at the store to buy a few groceries, her son told The Buffalo News. USA Today reported that she had four children and eight grandchildren.
“My mom was the consummate mom. 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,” her son told the Buffalo News.
Pearly Young, 77, was a substitute teacher who also ran a food pantry in the Central Park neighborhood for 25 years. According to WGRZ, she was a mother, grandmother and missionary. In a statement quoted by CNN, her family said “If there is one consolation that we can take from this tragedy is we know that mom is up in heaven with our dad — her Ollie — dancing and shouting with our heavenly father.”
The three injured were Zaire Goodman, 20, an employee of the market who was shot in the neck. The Associated Press said he is the son of a staffer in New York state Sen. Tim Kennedy’s office. In a press statement, Kennedy said, “Tonight, a member of my staff, my extended family, is at ECMC when she should be home. She’s sitting in a hospital waiting room because her beautiful, extraordinary son was shot while he was simply doing his job.”
Both Goodman and Jennifer Warrington, 50, were treated and released that night. A third survivor, Christoper Braden, 55, was hospitalized with his injuries.