‘Hero’ guard, shoppers among victims
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Aaron Salter was a beloved community member and security guard who knew the shoppers of Tops Friendly Market by name. When they came under attack from a gunman with a rifle, he quickly sprung into action to protect his community.
The retired Buffalo police officer fired multiple times at the attacker, striking his armor-plated vest at least once. The bullet didn’t pierce, and Salter was shot and killed.
“He’s a true hero,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Sunday.
Salter, who was Black, was one of 10 killed in an attack whose victims represented a cross-section of life in the predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
Ruth Whitfield was the 86-yearold mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. She had just visited her husband at a nursing home, as she did every day, when she stopped at Tops to buy a few groceries and was killed, her son told The Buffalo News.
Ruth Whitfield was “a mother to the motherless” and “a blessing to all of us,” her son said.
Roberta Drury had recently returned home to live with her mother, Dezzelynn McDuffie, who told The Buffalo News that the 32-year-old had walked to Tops to pick up some groceries Saturday afternoon. Soon, McDuffie saw horrifying videos circulating on social media that appeared to show the gunman shooting her daughter just outside the store.
Also killed was shopper Katherine Massey, whose sister, Barbara Massey, called her “a beautiful soul,” and Haywood Patterson, who worked as a driver, giving people rides to and from Tops and helping with groceries.