Thirteen people were shot Saturday afternoon at a Tops Friendly Market store in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, on the city’s near East Side. Eleven of the people shot were Black and two were white, police have said. Ten people have died.
On Sunday evening, authorities released the names of the, among them a security guard hailed as a “hero” for trying to stop the gunman and a deacon who often drove shoppers home. Their ages range from 32 to 86 years old.
While the information on the alleged gunman, identified as Payton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, who police say drove several hours to the grocery store to carry out the racially motivated attack is ongoing, here’s what we know about the victims:
01
Aaron Salter Jr.
Salters was a retired police lieutenant with the Buffalo Police Department who was working as a security guard at the Tops store when the shooting occurred. Salter opened fire on the gunman in an attempt to stop the mass shooting, but ultimately was shot and killed.
“He was a hero who tried to protect people in the store,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN on Sunday.
02
Pearl Young, 77
Young was a Fayette native with many family members still living in Alabama AL.com reported. She was grocery shopping after grabbing lunch with her sister-in-law when she was shot and killed. She was a teacher in the Buffalo Public School district and ran a food pantry in the Central Park neighborhood near where the shooting occurred, feeding those in need for over 25 years. She leaves behind two sons and a daughter.
03
Roberta Drury, 32
Drury was “vibrant and outgoing” and able to “talk to anyone,” her sister told ABC News. Drury moved to Buffalo from the Syracuse, New York in 2010 after her oldest brother received a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia. She helped her brother, Christopher, run his restaurant, The Dalmatia.
04
Ruth Whitfield, 86
The mother of four, was shopping at the Tops store when she was shot and killed, her son, Garnell W. Whitfield, told The Buffalo News. She was stopping for groceries after visiting her husband at a nursing home. Whitfield also had eight grandchildren. She was a member of the Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church for 50 years, the New York Times reported, according to her daughter-in-law Cassietta Whitfield.
05
Heyward Patterson, 68
Patterson was a deacon at a Buffalo church and had gone to a soup kitchen before going to the Tops store, where he often offered to drive people home with their bags. Pastor Russell Bell of State Tabernacle Church of God in Christ said Patterson often cleaned the church and did whatever was needed.
He was reportedly shot and killed in the parking lot while assisting someone put their groceries in their car.
“Whatever he had, he’d give it to you,” Tirzah Patterson, his wife of 13 years, told the Buffalo News. “You ask, he’ll give it. If he don’t got it, he’ll make a way to get it or send you to the person that can give it to you. He’s going to be missed a lot.”
06
Celestine Chaney, 65
According to the New York Times, Chaney was a single mother who worked at a suit manufacturer, then made baseball caps, before retiring.
She traveled to Tops supermarket on Saturday to make her favorite strawberry shortcakes, her son, Wayne Jones, told Insider. Jones said they normally attended the grocery together, but stayed behind on Saturday, recovering from knee surgery.
“We went grocery shopping, that was what we did. As she got older, I’d take her grocery shopping,” he told Insider. “It’s ironic that the one time we didn’t go together, there’s a tragedy.”
07
Margus D. Morrison, 52
Morrison was from Buffalo, according to Buffalo police. He was a father of three, Morrison’s mother told ABC 7 Buffalo.
08
Katherine ‘Kat’ Massey, 72
Massey was a civil rights and education advocate, according to her friend and former Erie County legislator Betty Jean Grant, a local NBC affiliate reported. She wrote for the Challenger and the Buffalo News. Massey worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield before she retired. She reportedly protested at rallies against illegal guns in the area.
Her family said she loved art, and dancing and was known for her sense of humor.
09
Geraldine Talley, 62
Talley was one of nine siblings. She worked as an executive assistant for years and was famous for her cheesecake, People reported.
Her niece, Kesha Chapman, told People that Talley was “the sweetest person.”
Talley “loved everybody. She was always smiling. She didn’t like confrontation. She wanted everything to be easy and full of love,” Chapman said.
10
Andre Mackneil, 53
Mackneil of Auburn, New York, was in town visiting relatives and was picking up a surprise birthday cake for his grandson.
He was “just a loving and caring guy. Loved family. Was always there for his family,” Clarissa Alston-McCutcheon said of her cousin.
