USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Made the whole room smile and laugh’
Victims remembered as caring, ‘ vibrant’ and a selfless hero
Friends and family on Monday mourned the 10 people killed in Buffalo, New York, when a gunman opened fire at a busy supermarket in what the FBI is investigating as a racially motivated hate crime.
Thirteen people were shot Saturday afternoon at a Tops Friendly Markets store in a historic neighborhood on the city’s Near East Side. Eleven of the people shot were Black and two were white.
Authorities released the names of the victims Sunday evening, among them a security guard hailed as a hero for trying to stop the gunman and a deacon who often drove shoppers home. Their ages range from 32 to 86.
Aaron Salter Jr.
Salter, 55, was a retired police lieutenant who spent decades with the Buffalo Police Department. He was working as a security guard at the Tops store when the shooting occurred, Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
Salter, of Lockport, New York, fired multiple shots and struck the gunman, who wore body armor. The gunman returned fire, killing Salter, police said.
Gramaglia described Salter as a “beloved” security guard and “a hero in our eyes” for his actions.
“He was a hero who tried to protect people in the store,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN on Sunday.
Salter’s former colleagues with the Police Department said his heroism in the face of danger did not come as a shock to them.
“It’s not surprising to me, at all, that he did what he did yesterday,” retired Lt. Steven Malkowski, who was Salter’s supervisor when they worked in the Police Department’s Traffic Division, told The Buffalo News. “People’s lives were in danger, and he was probably the only person who was in there that could help and save people.”
Ruth Whitfield
Whitfield, 86, was shopping at the Tops store when she was shot and killed, according to her son, Garnell. Her daughter, Robin, described her mother as her “best friend,” who took her on fishing and camping trips frequently.
She stopped for groceries after visiting her husband at a nursing home, a visit she made every day, her son said.
“She didn’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that,” Garnell Whitfield said Monday. “What do we tell our father? ... How do we tell him the love of his life, his primary caretaker, the person who kept him alive for the last eight years, how do we tell him that she’s gone?”
Whitfield, who was from Buffalo, had four children and eight grandchildren. She was a member of the Durham Memorial A. M. E. Zion Church for 50 years, The New York Times reported, citing her daughter- in- law Cassietta Whitfield.
“For her to be taken from us and taken from this world by someone who is just full of hate for no reason ... is very hard for us to handle right now,” Garnell Whitfield said Monday at a news conference. “We’re not just hurting. We’re angry, we’re mad. This shouldn’t have happened.”
Pearl Young
Young, 77, of Buffalo, was grocery shopping after grabbing lunch with her sister- in- law when she was shot and killed, AL. com reported. When Young’s adult son, Damon, arrived at the store to pick up his mother, he was met with sirens and police cars in the parking lot, her niece, Jacqueline Wright, told the news outlet.
At her church, Young taught Sunday school, led youth groups and was known for cooking large pots of vegetable soup, The Buffalo News reported.
Young was from Alabama, and she ran a food pantry in the Central Park neighborhood near the supermarket, feeding those in need for more than 25 years.
“Even if it was nothing but soup and bread, whatever she could do, she would just always avail herself to help the people,” her brother- in- law, Bishop Glenwood Young, told The Buffalo News. “That’s what she was noted for. … Her life was full of giving.”
Katherine ‘ Kat’ Massey
Massey, 72, of Buffalo, was a civil rights and education advocate, her friend and former Erie County legislator Betty Jean Grant told The Buffalo News.
Her sister, Barbara, stood outside the Tops story for hours, dialing Kat’s phone in hopes she would pick up. That evening, she discovered Kat had died.
“She was a beautiful soul,” Barbara Massey told The Buffalo News.
Last year, Massey wrote a letter in The Buffalo News in support of more federal regulation of guns, touching on urban street violence and mass shootings.
“There needs to be extensive federal action/ legislation to address all aspects of the issue,” she wrote. “Current pursued remedies mainly inspired by mass killings – namely, universal background checks and banning assault weapons – essentially exclude the sources of our city’s gun problems. Illegal handguns, via out of state gun trafficking, are the primary culprits.”
Roberta Drury
Drury, 32, of Buffalo, had returned home to live with her mother, Dezzelynn McDuffie, and was helping her brother recover from a bone marrow transplant, WIVB- TV reported. Drury was the youngest person who was killed.
Amanda Drury told The New York Times her sister was “vibrant” and “always was the center of attention and made the whole room smile and laugh.”
Heyward Patterson
Patterson, 67, was a deacon at a Buffalo church and had gone to a soup kitchen before going to the Tops store, where he often offered to drive people home with their bags. Pastor Russell Bell of State Tabernacle Church of God in Christ said Bell cleaned the church and would do whatever was needed.
“From what I understand, he was assisting somebody putting their groceries in their car when he was shot and killed,” Bell said.
Patterson was a regular at church, The Buffalo News reported.
“Whatever he had, he’d give it to you,” Tirzah Patterson, his wife of 13 years, told the news outlet. “You ask, he’ll give it. If he don’t got it, he’ll make a way to get it or send you to the person that can give it to you. He’s going to be missed a lot.”
Leonard Lane, the president of Buffalo F. A. T. H. E. R. S., worships at the church and told WIVB that Patterson “loved God, loved his family, loved serving the community. He did it every chance he could get.”
Celestine Chaney
Chaney, 65, of Buffalo, was a breast cancer survivor, which prompted her family to ask people to wear pink ribbons in her honor. She shopped twice a month with her only son, Wayne Jones. According to The New York Times, Chaney was a single mother who worked at a suit manufacturer, then made baseball caps, before retiring.
She went to Tops supermarket Saturday to pick up ingredients to make her favorite strawberry shortcake, Jones told Insider. Jones said he usually accompanied his mom grocery shopping but stayed behind Saturday because he was recovering from knee surgery.
“We went grocery shopping, that was what we did. As she got older, I’d take her grocery shopping,” he told Insider. “The one time we didn’t go together, there’s a tragedy.”
Andre Mackneil
Mackneil, 53, of Auburn, New York, was in town visiting relatives and was picking up a surprise birthday cake for his grandson.
“He never came out with the cake,” Clarissa Alston- McCutcheon said of her cousin. He was “just a loving and caring guy – loved family, was always there for his family.”
Geraldine Talley
Talley, 62, worked as an executive assistant for years and was famous for her cheesecake, People reported.
Her niece, Kesha Chapman, told People that Talley was “the sweetest person.”
Talley “loved everybody. She was always smiling. She didn’t like confrontation. She wanted everything to be easy and full of love,” Chapman said.
Talley was one of nine siblings, “an amazing sister, mother, aunt,” her younger sister, Kaye Chapman- Johnson, told ABC News.
“Our sister, we had so many plans together, so many plans, and everything has just been stripped away from us,” Chapman- Johnson said.
Margus Morrison
Morrison, 52, was from Buffalo, according to police. He was a father of three, Morrison’s mother told ABC 7 Buffalo.
Morrison was an active bus aide for Buffalo schools since February 2019, Ka’Ron Barnes, special assistant to the superintendent for community relations, told USA TODAY.
ALABAMA Mobile: A man convicted of murder over a decade ago was captured Monday a day after escaping from a minimum- security corrections center, prison officials said.
ALASKA Juneau: The state House has voted against accepting a spending package passed by the Senate that included payments of about $ 5,500 total per resident.
ARIZONA Tucson: A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling overturning a federal agency’s approval of a plan for a new open- pit copper mine in southeastern Arizona.
ARKANSAS Fayetteville: A raccoon ran loose in the stands during Arkansas baseball’s Friday game, but a fan came to the rescue, grabbing the animal with his bare hands and holding it up to cheers from the crowd.
CALIFORNIA Modesto: The state will acquire a former farm property in the San Joaquin Valley and create the first new state park in 13 years.
COLORADO Colorado Springs: The city is enacting a fire ban after a series of blazes have spread quickly in hot and dry conditions, including a fatal one caused by smoking.
CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: A former assistant police chief ’ s lawsuit claiming he was defrauded out of the chief ’ s job can go forward, a state appeals court has ruled.
DELAWARE Dover: State lawmakers have introduced bipartisan legislation that would put state law enforcement officials in charge of background checks for gun purchases.
FLORIDA Vero Beach: A food truck exploded during a seafood festival Saturday, sending one person to the hospital with severe burns, according to authorities.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A group of voters who challenged U. S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection said Monday that they have filed an appeal of the Georgia secretary of state’s decision that she can appear on the ballot.
HAWAII Honolulu: Hawaiian Airlines is exploring electric aircraft technology with an eye toward using the vehicles for interisland travel, Hawaii News Now reports.
IDAHO Boise: State officials have agreed to a $ 119 million settlement with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors over their role in the opioid addiction crisis. The money will address damage wrought by the drugs.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Mayor Lori Lightfoot tightened a citywide curfew for young people Monday, a day after she restricted access by unaccompanied minors to Millennium Park after the weekend shooting death of a 16- yearold boy near “The Bean” sculpture.
INDIANA Noblesville: A tiny commu
nity garden that provided 1,500 pounds of free food over five years to people in need was bulldozed by city crews after a nuisance call about overgrown grass.
IOWA Des Moines: School districts across the state are up against a federal deadline that will end a pandemic- era free meals program for students next month.
KANSAS Topeka: A federal judge is blocking a public school’s policy preventing teachers from outing transgender students to parents after the teacher raised religious objections.
KENTUCKY Richmond: A judge entered a not guilty plea Monday for a man accused of fatally shooting the daughter of a former state lawmaker during a home invasion.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Child drownings are on the rise in Louisiana, according to the state Department of Health, which says inability to swim, lack of supervision, and unfenced pools, spas and water bodies are the top causes.
MAINE Portland: A proposed order from the state’s Board of Environmental Protection would let stand a permit issued for a $ 1 billion electric transmission corridor to serve as a conduit for Canadian hydropower.
MARYLAND Annapolis: U. S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he has suffered a minor stroke and is being treated at a hospital out of an abundance of caution. The Maryland Democrat said he’s been told there are no long- term effects or damage.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Chelsea Millsap, 32, who can trace her ancestry to the Pilgrims, has become the first woman named sexton in the nearly 300- year history of Boston’s historic Old North Church.
MICHIGAN Detroit: A man walking on a footbridge to a Detroit Tigers game said he fell 15 feet to the ground when part of the concrete collapsed May 9, but the bridge still was open until the Detroit News reached out to the Michigan Transportation Department on Sunday.
MINNESOTA Lutsen: Communities in northeastern Minnesota are preparing to deal with more flooding and are calling for volunteers to help with sandbagging.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The state has revised its landlord- tenant law to give renters time to gather their belongings from a home before being forced to leave, after a federal judge ruled that the previous law was unconstitutional.
MISSOURI Springfield: The state has retained a dubious distinction for the 10th time, topping the Humane Society of the United States’ list of the most abusive puppy mills.
MONTANA Crow Agency: Little Big Horn College, a tribal college on the Crow Reservation, will host the 10th annual Crow Summer Institute on June 6- 24, offering free Crow language and culture classes.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: The state has agreed to pay $ 479,000 to the family of a “talkative” man strangled to death in 2017 by a fellow inmate who didn’t want a cellmate.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A proposed ballot initiative seeks to amend the state constitution to establish open top- five primaries and rankedchoice voting for general elections.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A former Trump official running for Congress did not violate state law by voting twice in 2016 primaries, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday without taking a position on whether federal law was broken.
NEW JERSEY Toms River: The Ocean County Board of Commissioners plans to wade into the debate over the state’s new health and sex education curriculum this week.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The city’s Asian American community is testing a new online service to bolster security for businesses in the wake of two deadly shootings.
NEW YORK New York: City health officials issued an advisory Monday urging masks in indoor settings.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $ 5,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the shooting death of an endangered red wolf found April 15.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Hoping to head off an explosion of electronic pull tab machines at gas stations and liquor, grocery and convenience stores, state regulators want to change the definition of a bar to make clear where the games that mimic slot machines are allowed.
OHIO Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine has asked the Ohio Rail Development Commission to work with Amtrak to study potential new routes, according to a spokesperson.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: New laws signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt will increase funding for local enforcement of the medical marijuana industry and target illicit sales of cannabis.
OREGON Portland: Criminal defendants who have gone without legal representation for long periods of time amid a critical shortage of public defense attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday that alleges the state violated their constitutional right to legal counsel and a speedy trial.
PENNSYLVANIA Carlisle: Republican U. S. Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz criticized GOP primary rival Kathy Barnette over a 2015 tweet in which she wrote that “Pedophilia is a Cornerstone of Islam.” Oz, who would be the nation’s first Muslim senator, called the comments “disqualifying.”
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A congressional candidate recently arrested on a menacing charge in another state has dropped out of the race.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Grace Church has purchased a dormitory building from Greenville Technical College to convert into affordable housing as part of a special program to address the local housing crisis.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Ongoing drought has been hard on the state’s wildlife. The U. S. Forest Service says the grouse population in the Fort Pierre National Grassland has declined by 15% in 2022.
TENNESSEE Knoxville: In its quest to redefine tourism at the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is planning an immersive theme park that would share tribal history.
TEXAS Houston: Two people were killed and three more taken to a hospital with injuries after a shooting at a flea market Sunday, officials said.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A copper mining company will begin manufacturing tellurium, a rare mineral used in solar panels that used to be discarded with other mine tailings.
VERMONT Montpelier: Gov. Phil Scott signed a law Monday creating an advisory committee to make recommendations on how to spend the state’s share of settlement money with drugmakers and distributors over the toll of prescription opioids.
VIRGINIA Norfolk: A professor whose research on pedophilia created a stir at Old Dominion University for using the phrase “minor- attracted person” instead of “pedophile” has landed a new job with Johns Hopkins University’s Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Amtrak will postpone restoring its Cascades passenger- train service between Seattle and Vancouver, B. C., until possibly December, citing a lack of personnel.
WEST VIRGINIA Welch: Gov. Jim Justice has visited the site of a planned $ 147 million highway project that will connect Welch to the Coalfields Expressway.
WISCONSIN Sparta: The popular Elroy- Sparta State Trail officially reopened over the weekend following several years of flood- related repairs.
WYOMING Cheyenne: GOP U. S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis apologized Monday after getting booed for her remarks on sexual identity during a University of Wyoming graduation speech.