Buffalo supermarket shooting: What we know about the 10 victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Residents of Buffalo, New York are mourning the deaths of 10 people killed when a teenager opened fire at a Tops Friendly Markets on Saturday afternoon.

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In addition to the 10 people killed, three others were injured in the shooting. Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Conklin, New York was arraigned Saturday night on one count of first-degree murder, but may face additional charges when he returns to court on Thursday, as we previously reported.

Here’s what we know about the 10 people killed:

Aaron Salter

Aaron Salter, the security guard who is credited with confronting Gendron inside the supermarket before he was shot and killed, was called “a hero in our eyes” by Buffalo’s police chief.

Salter had worked for the Buffalo Police Department before his retirement several years ago, CBS News reported.

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“I can’t say enough about our retired fellow colleague, Aaron Salter, who confronted this individual to save the lives of others,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said in a press conference Sunday.

Salter fired multiple shots at the suspect inside the store, but because the gunman was wearing bulletproof armor they had no effect, The Associated Press reported.

Ruth Whitfield

Buffalo’s former commissioner, Garnell Whitfield, confirmed that his 86-year-old mother was one of the victims killed inside the supermarket.

The mother of four had stopped at the store to get something to eat after visiting her husband in a nursing home, WGRZ reported.

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“My mom was the consummate mom. My mother was a mother to the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same thing,” Garnell Whitfield told The Buffalo News.

Roberta A. Drury

Roberta Drury, 32, is remembered by her family as someone who was always helpful.

“She would go to Tops for us all the time,” Christopher Moyer, Drury’s adoptive brother, told NPR. “We don’t really have family in the area, so it was just a great help that she could do something like that.

Drury moved to Buffalo from the Syracuse, New York area to be with her brother after his bone marrow transplant, Reuters reported.

Pearly Young

Pearly Young, 77, was a mother, grandmother and missionary, who had spent the last 25 years running a food pantry in Buffalo’s Central Park neighborhood, WGRZ reported.

Katherine “Kat” Massey

Katherine “Kat” Massey was a civil rights advocate. After the cousin of a state lawmaker was shot and killed, Massey wrote a letter to the editor in The Buffalo News calling for stricter gun control, The New York Times reported.

“We lost a voice yesterday. We lost a powerful, powerful voice,” former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, who was friends with Massey, told The Buffalo News.

The newspaper said that Massey wrote for multiple outlets and was a frequent letter writer to their outlet.

Heyward Patterson

Heyward Patterson worked as a driver, giving rides to and from the grocery store and helping people with their groceries, NPR reported.

He charged less as a driver than more typical ride-sharing services or taxis, and then used the money he earned to support his three children, his family told The New York Times.

Patterson’s grandniece, Teniqua Clark, told The New York Times that Patterson was helping someone load groceries into their car’s trunk when he was killed.

“He didn’t even have a chance to run,” Clark told the newspaper. “He didn’t have a chance at all.”

Patterson served as armor-bearer at the State Tabernacle Church of God, volunteered to clean the church each weekend and worked in the soup kitchen, The Buffalo News reported.

“He would give the shirt off his back,” Tirzah Patterson, Heyward’s former wife, told The Buffalo News. “That’s who he is. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. Whatever he had, he’d give it to you. 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.”

Margus D. Morrison

Margus Morrison, 52, was a father of three, his mother told WKBW.

Celestine Chaney

Celestine Chaney, 65, was visiting her sister and had gone to the supermarket to get strawberries to make shortcakes, her son told The New York Times. Chaney’s sister, who was with her at the supermarket, was able to make it to a cooler and hide from the gunman.

“She fell, and I thought she had got up and was behind me, but she wasn’t behind me,” JoaAnn Daniels, Chaney’s sister, told The Buffalo News.

Chaney was a breast cancer survivor and left behind six grandchildren, ranging in age from 4 to 28, NPR reported.

Andre Mackneil

Andre Mackneil, 53, lived in Auburn, which is approximately 120 miles east of Buffalo, Reuters reported.

Geraldine Talley

Geraldine Talley, 62, was shopping with her fiancé at the supermarket when she was shot and killed, her niece told CNN.

Talley’s niece told CNN that her aunt was at the front of the store when the shooting started. Her fiancé, who had stepped away to get orange juice, was not hurt.

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