Buffalo Police on scene at a Tops Friendly Market on May 14, 2022, in Buffalo, New York. | Source: John Normile / Getty
UPDATED 10:45 a.m. ET May 16, with full list of fatal victims’ names.
Originally published May 14
All 10 of the fatal victims from this weekend’s racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, have been identified.
Among them are four elderly women, a former veteran police officer and a local civil rights advocate who demanded less than a year ago federal legislation addressing gun violence.
All of the people killed are Black and the suspect, Payton Gendron, is white.
Gendron, a suspected white supremacist, injured three others. In all, 11 of the total 13 victims are Black. The other two victims are white. Nine of those who were killed were customers. Three supermarket employees sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
One of the victims is a 30-year-old woman whose mother sent her to Tops Friendly Market, the Buffalo News reported. The woman’s mother said her daughter never returned and she later saw her daughter’s photo on social media being mentioned as a victim. However, no representatives from the city have been in touch, the woman’s mother said.
The Buffalo News also reported that another victim was a “church deacon who works as a driver.”
Here’s what else we know about the victims so far, courtesy of reporting from the Buffalo News and information documented on a viral Twitter thread identifying the victims. Their names follow in alphabetical order.
This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.
Celestine Chaney
Sixty-five-year-old Celestine Chaney “was a breast cancer survivor with 7 grandkids,” according to a viral Twitter thread. She also survived multiple brain aneurysms. Only to be killed in a racist mass shooting.
“More than anything, she relished being a grandmother,” The Buffalo News reported. “Her grandchildren, ranging in age from 4 to 28, kept her more than occupied.”
Chaney’s son, Wayne Jones, told the Buffalo News that his mother loved the strawberry shortcake sold at Tops Friendly Market.
“They sell those little cake cups, you cut the strawberries up, sprinkle sugar over them and leave in the refrigerator overnight,” Jones recalled. “The juice from the strawberries is poured in the cup, and you put whipped cream on top.”
Chaney was with her older sister, JoAnne Daniels at Tops Friendly Market on Saturday to buy some of those same miniature strawberry shortcakes.
“She fell and I thought she had got up and was behind me, but she wasn’t behind me,” Daniels said of the last time she saw Chaney alive.
Roberta Drury
Roberta Drury, a 32-year-old from Syracuse, “was in Buffalo spending time with family and to help her brother recover from a bone marrow transplant. She leaves behind 3 siblings and her parents.”
Andre Mackniel
Fifty-three-year-old Andre Mackniel was “a beloved father, brother, uncle and friend” who “was at Tops supermarket to buy a birthday cake for his son who just turned 3,” his brother said.
Katherine ‘Kat’ Massey
Katherine “Kat” Massey “was a beautiful soul,” her sister, Barbara Massey, said.
The 72-year-old was remembered by a former elected official as a local civil rights advocate who played an outsized role in Buffalo’s Black community.
Less than a year ago, Massey wrote a letter to the editor that was published by the Buffalo News demanding “extensive federal action/legislation” in response to what she called “escalating gun violence in Buffalo and many major U.S. cities.”
Margus D. Morrison, 52
From Twitter: “Margus D. Morrison, 52, was a father-of-three and was described by family and friends as a ‘nice person that never bothered anyone.’”
Heyward Patterson
“Heyward Patterson, a deacon at his church, would frequently give people rides to and from the Tops supermarket and help them carry their groceries,” the Twitter thread added.
Aaron Salter Jr.
One of the 10 people killed in the shooting at Tops Friendly Market was a former Buffalo police officer named Aaron Salter Jr. He was working as a security guard at Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue when he tried to stop Gendron, who was draped in body armor.
https://twitter.com/ShieldHero85/status/1525672052795052032?s=20&t=rGL1d4haJED4Mu2quO8ixA
Salter, a father of three, was remembered by his son as a “hero” who prevented further carnage as he engaged Gendron with gunfire.
“I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today,” Aaron Salter III told the Daily Beast. “He’s a hero.”
Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia similarly described Salter as “a hero in our eyes,” the Buffalo News reported.
A witness told the New York Times he knew Salter.
“It’s hard to grasp,” Clarence Jones said of Salter’s death. “It’s hard. It’s hard.”
Salter’s former law enforcement status was somewhat paradoxical as police officers responding to a mass murder taking place in real-time somehow managed to not kill Gendron, who was reportedly talked out of dying by suicide as he held a gun to his neck.
It was not immediately clear if Buffalo police even fired a single shot at a man suspected of a crime that is exponentially more severe than the types of nonviolent police encounters that routinely end with Black civilians being killed.
Geraldine Talley, 62
From Twitter: “Geraldine Chapman Talley, 62, was described by her niece, Kesha Chapman, as a gentle soul. ‘She loved everybody. She was always smiling. She didn’t like confrontation. She wanted everything to be easy and full of love.’ Geraldine leaves behind her two adult children.”
Ruth Whitfield
The 86-year-old mother of Buffalo’s former fire commissioner was also killed in Saturday’s shooting. Ruth Whitfield was shopping when the heavily armed and armored Gendron entered Tops Friendly Market and killed her along with nine other people.
“I never dreamed I’d ever be having a phone call like this,” retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield told the Buffalo News about learning his mother had been killed in the mass shooting. “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.”
Pearly Young
An elderly grandmother who was slain during the supermarket shooting is being remembered fondly as a pillar of the community.
“Pearly Young, 77, was killed today in #Buffalo shopping for groceries,” journalist Madison Carter eulogized on Twitter following the shooting. “For 25 years she ran a pantry where every Saturday she fed people in Central Park. Every. Saturday. She loved singing, dancing, & being with family. She was mother, grandma, & missionary. Gone too soon.”
Young was also mourned on Facebook.
“YOU DID NOT DESERVE THIS!!!” Jimmie Smith posted as a status update late Saturday night. “You were so sweet and beautiful on the inside and out! YOU REALLY DID LOVE THE LORD!!!!”
“We lost a voice yesterday,” former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, who called Massey her best friend for more than two decades, told the Buffalo News on Sunday. “We lost a powerful, powerful voice.”
This is a developing story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.
SEE ALSO:
‘White Supremacist’ Safely Arrested After Buffalo Supermarket Massacre
‘White Replacement Theory’: Buffalo Suspect Pushed Racist GOP Conspiracy In Manifesto, Reports Claim
All Fatal Buffalo Shooting Victims Have Been Identified was originally published on newsone.com
