An 86-year-old African American grandmother, who did weekend grocery shopping, was named as one of the 10 victims killed in the Buffalo convenience store killing on Saturday afternoon.
Ruth Whitfield was the mother of four children, including former Buffalo Fire Department Commissioner Garnell W. Witfield, 64. She was the second victim to be named — the first was retired police officer-turned security guard Aaron Salter Jr.
“My mother was the consummate mother. Mother was mother of the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same,” the former commissioner told the Buffalo News.
Witfield recalled how his 88-year-old father, who currently lives in a Buffalo nursing home, worked multiple jobs so his wife could stay home and raise the couple’s children.
Ruth Witfield, 86, the mother of former Buffalo Fire Department Commissioner Garnell Witfield, was killed in the shooting
“She took my brother and I to football practice, sometimes twice a day, and she never missed a game. And that was just us. She did that for all the kids.’
Witfield explained how his mother would continue to care for her husband despite living in a dorm.
“She went there every day. She took care of our father as she had done all her married life. She brought him clean clothes, cut his nails, shaved him, cut his hair. She did everything,’ Whitfield said.
He also shared how his mother’s faith inspired him and propelled him forward in his career with the Buffalo Fire Department.
“She inspired me to be a man of God and to do everything I do to the best of my ability. I couldn’t have done it without her.”
Retired Buffalo Police Department cop Aaron Salter, pictured right, was working as a security guard at a store and shot Gendron, who returned fire, killing Salter
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
Aaron Salter Jr., a 30-year former Buffalo police officer who worked as a security guard at the store, was also named as one of the victims of the shooting.
The father-of-three is being hailed as a hero after exchanging gunshots with 18-year-old gunman Payton Gendron at the supermarket.
Salter Jr. had worked in the Tops Friendly Markets store for the past four years.
When the gunman came in with an assault rifle, Salter drew his own gun and tried to trip the gunman.
But Salter’s bullets failed to penetrate Gendron’s armor. Grendon returned fire, killing Salter.
“Today is a shock,” his son Aaron Salter III told The Daily Beast. “I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today. He is a hero.”
Salter had joined the Buffalo Police Department straight out of high school.
One of Salter’s cousins, Adam Bennefield, said the family was very devastated by what had happened.
“I don’t think anyone could ever expect something like that,” said Bennefield, 44. “I don’t think anyone can. Everyone’s hurt now, everyone’s upset.
Payton Gendron is 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
Outside of his police and security work, Salter is said to have been interested in green energy and started his own company.
“For about four years I’ve been constantly working on my vehicles and/or my project to run motors on water,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “With my newly discovered source of energy, I want to realize my dream of one day driving cars without water.”
In 2019, his son Aaron Jr. took to Facebook fears of a mass shooting following an incident in which a white gunman traveled for hours across the state of Texas and killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, where the vast majority of the population resides shared spanish.
“When I hear another story of someone shooting innocent people en masse, or like yesterday the 20-year-old in Missouri who went to Walmart with an assault rifle and 100 rounds and recorded himself commenting on people while they were shopping , I’ll lose my mind, we can.” I don’t even do sh*t every day without having to watch our backs, and that’s scary! The sad thing is I have a feeling some madman is about to do something close to home and I’m not ready for that. We as people in the so-called USA have to do better, this shit is crazy!’
It was revealed on Saturday night that Grendon’s shooting was “racially motivated” and that he had live streamed the attack on camera.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown holds a moment of silence and prayer after the shooting
The gunman, who was wearing a body armor and helmet, was arrested after the massacre, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said at a news conference.
Eleven of the victims were African American.
The gunman shot four people, three of them fatally, in the Tops supermarket parking lot, then went inside and continued shooting, Gramaglia said.
When police arrived, the gunman put the gun to his neck but was talked down and surrendered.
Stephen Belongia, special agent for the FBI’s Buffalo field office, told the press conference that the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
“We are investigating this incident as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism,” Belongia said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia speaks at a news conference following the shooting
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia described the attack as “purely evil.”
“It was a racially motivated hate crime by someone outside of our community,” he said.
When asked what information led authorities to call the attack a hate crime, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said they had evidence of “racial hatred,” but declined to elaborate.
US media have reported that officials are examining a detailed “manifesto” posted online ahead of the shooting, in which the suspect lays out his plans and racist motivations for the attack.
A semi-automatic weapon used by the shooter also had a racial epithet and the number 14 written on it — a reference to a white supremacist phrase — according to local newspaper The Buffalo News, citing a local official.
District Attorney Flynn said in the press conference that the shooter used an “assault weapon” — a term that may apply to rifles and shotguns in New York — but didn’t specify what kind.
Flynn’s office said in a tweet Saturday night that the suspect – identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York – has been charged with first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence without parole. He is being held without bail.
When asked during the earlier press briefing whether the shooter could face the federal death penalty, US Attorney for the Western District of New York Trini Ross said: “All options are on the table as we continue the investigation. ‘
Among those killed at the Buffalo store was a retired police officer who worked as an armed guard
Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo — which is in western New York state on the US-Canada border — said the shooter “travelled for hours from outside of this community to commit this crime.”
“This is a day of great pain for our community,” Brown said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the “horrific shooting.”
Biden ‘will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as more information develops. The President and First Lady pray for the lost and for their loved ones,” added Jean-Pierre.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senior US Senator from New York, said in a tweet, “We stand with the people of Buffalo.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul described the killings as a “horrific white supremacist shootout” in a tweet that also praised the grocery store security guard as a “true hero.”
A spokesman for streaming service Twitch confirmed how the shooter used the service to broadcast the attack.
“We have investigated and confirmed that we removed the stream less than two minutes after the violence began,” the spokesperson said, adding, “We are taking all reasonable action, including monitoring accounts that are rebroadcasting this content.”
Police are responding to the scene of a shooting in a supermarket parking lot that left ten people dead in the shooting
The Buffalo shooting follows other recent instances of racially motivated mass killings in the United States.
In 2019, a white gunman traveled hours across the state of Texas, killing 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, where the vast majority of the population is Hispanic.
Four years earlier, a white man opened fire at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine.
In both cases, the men posted hate-filled manifestos on the internet before their killing sprees.
Despite repeated shootings with mass casualties and a nationwide spate of gun violence, several initiatives to reform gun laws have failed in the US Congress, leaving states and local governments to enact their own restrictions.
The United States suffered 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, nearly 35 percent more than in 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest data.