A manager at the Buffalo supermarket where 10 people were shot dead by a white supremacist recounted the moment she saw a victim being shot dead before her eyes.
“I ran around the front of the building, witnessed someone being shot and ran around the back to get my daughter,” Tops Market operations manager Shonnell Harris said of Saturday’s massacre.
She was confronted with the horrifying place after fleeing through the back door to avoid gunfire, only to see gunman Payton Grendon deadly dead another victim in front of her eyes.
He shot 13 people, 10 of them fatally, and it’s unclear if the victim Harris saw survived
“I heard the noise, it got louder and closer,” Harris told The Buffalo News of the tragedy, recalling the shooting of white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, who killed 13 people during the attack, which police say was racist shot motivated.
She said she heard up to 70 bullets during the attack at the shop where her daughter also works
Police said 11 of those victims were black and that Gendron – who drove more than three hours from his Conklin home to the store in a predominantly black neighborhood – walked through the Tops looking for specific people he was looking for could attack.
Ten died as a result of the shooting – the start of which Gendron had live streamed on Twitch before the feed was shut down about two minutes after the teenager’s rampage.
“Everyone started running backwards,” Harris recalled, as shoppers fled in despair from the sound of gunfire as the first shots rang out.
“I tripped a few times before I could get out.”
Witness Shonnell Harris (pictured left with her husband), a manager at Buffalo Tops where the shooting took place, said she saw a person being shot right in front of her as she was fleeing the store where the tragedy happened – in which 10 people died – took place
Filming took place Saturday at the Tops supermarket (pictured) at 1275 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New York. At least 10 people were shot
Harris, who said she believed she heard over 70 gunshots during the chaos that ensued. then described how she then saw Gendron wearing military fatigues and a ballistic vest during the attack.
“I saw the shooter, he looked like he was dressed for the army,” she recalled of the outlet. Harris said she then fled through a back door before eventually finding her daughter outside.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Harris said of the massacre — the worst in Buffalo history.
“It’s like a dream, but you know it’s not a dream. You see it on TV, in schools, but I never thought I’d be one of them.’
When she found her daughter, she said, “I just grabbed her, I hugged her.”
Witnesses said Payton Hendron was arrested Saturday after killing 10 people at a Tops Market supermarket in Buffalo, upstate New York. Police say the massacre was motivated by the 18-year-old’s hatred of black people. Eleven of those shots were African American
The gunman opened fire around 2:30 p.m. Saturday while live-streaming the shooting. Several witnesses saw him carry out the 10 murders
Another eyewitness, 20-year-old Braedyn Kephart, told local outlet 2 WGRZ that she saw the gunman near the end of the attack with one of three guns he was carrying pointed at his throat , after being confronted by police officers.
Kephart and her friend were pulling into the store’s parking lot when the massacre ended.
“He was standing there with the gun to his chin,” said Kephart, who saw the standoff after pulling into the store’s parking lot with a friend.
Another eyewitness, 20-year-old Braedyn Kephart, said she saw the gunman point a gun at his own neck near the end of the attack after being confronted by police officers
“We thought, what the hell is going on? Why does this boy have a gun in his face?’ Kephart said, adding that Gendron eventually gave up attempting suicide after falling to his knees after confronting SWAT officers.
“He was standing there in his military gear with his gun to his chin and looking like he was going to blow his head off,” Kaphart said. “We weren’t sure what was going on. As he continued, he fell to his knees still looking like he was going to shoot himself.”
“He ripped off his helmet, dropped his gun and was attacked by police,” she said.
Across the street from the Tops, retired Buffalo firefighter and paramedic Katherine Crofton told Buffalo News that she also saw Gendron during the attack after hearing gunshots while sitting on her porch with her dog.
She explained how she saw the man shoot two women in the store’s parking lot.
“I didn’t see him at first, I turned and saw him shoot that woman,” Crofton told the newspaper. ‘She was just about to go to the store.
“And then he shot another woman,” Crofton said. “She packed groceries in her car. I came down because I didn’t know if he was going to shoot me.’
Crofton said she also saw Gendron towards the end of the attack when officers confronted him outside the store, where she recalled how the gunman looked like he wanted police to gun him down.
“The guy came out of the store, the cops just yelled at him, and he just stood there. He just stood there. It was like he wanted them to shoot him,” Crofton said. Crofton said the shooter began removing his gear after more officers arrived at the scene. At that point, officers jumped on the teenager and held him down, she said.
Meanwhile, a dairy worker at the store was describing how he was forced to take shelter in a cooler he had been storing milk in when he suddenly heard gunfire.
“I just heard gunshots. Shots and shots and shots,” the unnamed employee told the news. “It sounded like things were falling over.”
He said he waited in the cold room long after the sound of the gunshots passed.
‘I hid myself. I just hid. I didn’t want to leave this room,” the employee said.
Police officers Gendron shot dead four people in front of the store, three of whom died, the commissioner said.
He then went to the grocery store, where he exchanged gunfire with a security guard — a former Buffalo police officer. The ex-cop shot the shooter multiple times, officers said, but the bullets hit the shooter’s arm, leaving him unperturbed.
Gendron then killed the guard, identified as Aaron Salter Jr.
Another six victims are believed to have been shot inside.
Cops said Gendron scrawled the N-word on his gun before committing the murders. The teenager pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder stemming from Saturday’s massacre. It is still unclear to which of the murders the indictment relates. He is likely to face more charges in the coming hours.
Gendron, who appeared in court barefoot, masked and wearing a paper coat on Saturday, lived before the murder in the small town of Conklin with his father Paul and mother Pamela, both of whom are engineers with New York City’s transit department.
Payton Gendron, 18, has been named as the gunman who killed 10 people in a supermarket massacre in upstate New York on Saturday
Buffalo gunman Payton Gendron is pictured at his arraignment hearing Saturday night after being charged with a single first-degree murder. More charges will almost certainly follow
Gendron donned a paper outfit and mask for the hearing and was barefoot. He spoke only to confirm that he understands the charges he is facing, with his attorney saying he intends to deny the allegations
Neighbors in the rural town – which has a population of just over 5,000 – told that the Gendrons are a humble family and that they were deeply shocked by the news of Payton’s murder.
Salter Jr., the first and only victim named in the attack, was hailed as a hero after exchanging gunfire with Gendron in the crowded market.