A retired police officer, an 86-year-old woman and a longtime missionary were among the 10 people tragically shot and killed in Saturday’s horrific, racially motivated attack at a Buffalo supermarket.
Police haven’t released the identities of people killed or wounded in the ambush at a Tops Friendly Markets store, but family members and colleagues of multiple victims have begun sharing their stories.
Thirteen people were shot in total, 11 of whom were Black.
Authorities arrested Payton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, N.Y., in connection with the shooting. A manifesto allegedly written by Gendron describes the supermarket as being in a Zip code with “the highest Black percentage that is close enough to where I live.”
Here’s what we know about the victims.
Aaron Salter Jr.
Retired cop Salter was working as a security guard at the Tops supermarket on Saturday and exchanged gunfire with the shooter before being fatally wounded.
Salter, who worked for the Buffalo Police Department for three decades, was called “a hero” by his son in an interview with The Daily Beast.
“I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today,” Aaron Salter III told the website.
Salter spent the past four years doing security for Tops. On his LinkedIn page, Salter said it was his “dream” to get “cars to run off of water” through an energy source he discovered.
He previously survived a 1996 encounter with a suspected burglar who had a shotgun, telling The Buffalo News at the time, “I don’t enjoy looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and if it hadn’t been for my partner shooting first, it would have been a golden opportunity to shoot us. My partner probably saved us.”
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Ruth Whitfield
Before Saturday’s shooting, the 86-year-old Whitfield spent time visiting her 88-year-old husband at a nursing home, according Buffalo news station WGRZ.
She was buying food at Tops when the gunfire began, her son, Garnell Whitfield, told the TV outlet. Garnell is the former Buffalo Fire Commissioner.
“My mom was the consummate mom,” Garnell told 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.”
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Katherine Massey
Massey was one of the six shoppers at Tops to be killed by the gunman, her sister, Barbara Massey, told The Buffalo News.
“She was a beautiful soul,” Barbara said of her sibling in a text message.
Pearly Young
The 77-year-old Young was also shopping at the supermarket when she was fatally shot, according to Buffalo native Madison Carter, who is a reporter for the Atlanta news station WXIA-TV.
She described Young in a tweet as a “missionary,” in addition to being a mother and grandmother.
“For 25 years she ran a pantry where every Saturday she fed people in Central Park,” Carter wrote. “Every. Saturday. She loved singing, dancing, & being with family.”
