RELATIVES OF BUFFALO VICTIMS DEMAND END TO RACIAL VIOLENCE
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Relatives of the 10 Black people massacred in a Buffalo supermarket pleaded with the nation Thursday to confront and stop racist violence, their agony pouring out in the tears of a 12-year-old child, hours after the accused, white killer silently faced a murder indictment in court.
Jaques “Jake” Patterson, who lost his father, covered his face with his hands as his mother spoke at a news conference. Once she finished, Jake collapsed into the arms of the Rev. Al Sharpton, the veteran civil rights activist, and cried silently, using his T-shirt to wipe his tears.
“His heart is broken,” said his mother, Tirzah Patterson, adding that her son was having trouble sleeping and eating.
“As a mother, what am I supposed to do to help him get through this?” she said.
Her ex-husband, Heyward Patterson, a 67-year-old church deacon, was gunned down Saturday at Tops Friendly Market. So was Robin Harris’ 86-year-old mother and best friend, Ruth Whitfield, on a day when they were supposed to go see the touring Broadway show “Ain’t Too Proud.”
“That racist young man took my mother away,” Harris said, trembling and stomping her feet as she spoke.
“How dare you!” Harris shouted viscerally. “I need this violence to stop,” she added. “We need to fix this, and we need to fix it now.”
Earlier in the day in another part of town, accused gunman Payton Gendron, 18, appeared briefly in court to hear that he was indicted in the killings.
“Payton, you’re a coward!” someone shouted the courtroom gallery as he was led away.
Gendron, whose lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him at an earlier court appearance, didn’t speak. His attorneys later declined to comment. He is being held without bail and is due back in court June 9.
Authorities are investigating the possibility of hate crime and terrorism charges against Gendron, who apparently detailed his plans for the assault and his racist motivation in hundreds of pages of writings he posted online shortly before the shooting. It was livestreamed from a helmet-mounted camera.
“We need to hold all that have aided and abetted the hate in this country accountable,” Sharpton said at the news conference outside Buffalo’s Antioch Baptist Church. The civil rights activist’s group, the National Action Network, plans to cover funeral expenses for those killed.