BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two years after a self-proclaimed white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in the Buffalo community, residents still grapple together to remember those killed and continue on the path of healing.
White supremacist Payton Gendron drove more than 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo’s largely Black East Side neighborhood, where he shot eight supermarket customers, the store security guard and a church deacon who drove shoppers to and from the store with their groceries.
Killed in the May 14, 2022, attack were Ruth Whitfield, 86; Roberta Drury, 32; retired Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter Jr., 55; Heyward Patterson, 67; Pearl Young, 77; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Katherine “Kat” Massey, 72; Margus Morrison, 52; and Andre Mackniel, 53.
Three people were wounded but survived.
President Joe Biden sent a letter on the anniversary commemorating the two-year mark of the tragedy.
Honoring Victims and Combating Hate: A Commitment to Action
“Jill and I join the people of Buffalo in Honoring the memories of the 10 souls who were stolen from us in an unconscionable act of racial hatred against the Black community on this day 2 years ago,” Biden said in the letter. “When I spoke to your community in the days after this horrific shooting, I came to deliver a message—that our entire Nation grieved with you, that we would continue to stand against violence inflicted in the service of hate, and that we would redouble our efforts to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.”
U.S. President Joe R. Biden
In May 2022, President Biden visited the Buffalo community where the racially motivated massacre took place. He urged Americans to reject white supremacy and condemned the racist conspiracy theory that influenced the shooter.
Strengthening Gun Control: Implementing Life-Saving Policies
In June of 2022, Biden signed the Safer America Plan, which in part would take additional steps to keep guns out of dangerous hands. In 2023, he created the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in an effort to end the United States’ gun violence epidemic.
Greg Jackson, deputy director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention for the Biden-Harris Administration, visited Buffalo to acknowledge the second anniversary of the hate crime.
“It is just heartbreaking that we even have to be here today knowing that so many people lost those they love and are now still reeling from that trauma,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the first major task of the office was to implement “life-saving policies.”
“For example, we changed the policy to make sure that unlicensed private sellers now must be licensed, and conduct background checks. That means that online sales and gun shows are all of those sellers who have to be licensed and have to conduct background checks,” Jackson said.
Jackson said there have been additional background checks for anyone under 21 who wants to purchase a gun.
“We actually denied 25 percent of those gun purchase attempts for those under 21 due to concerning flags with people’s mental health history, or their juvenile criminal history, knowing that type of step can prevent future tragedies like this,” Jackson said.
Shooter faces federal death penalty case
Gendron is facing life in state prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism. He now faces a federal execution trial.
While there is a moratorium from 2021 issued by US Attorney General Merrick Garland halting federal executions, federal prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for Gordon.
In the court filings, Trini Ross, the U.S. attorney for western New York, noted that the shooter thoroughly planned the attack, including the choice of location, which she said was meant to “maximize the number of Black victims.”
In a joint statement, attorneys for some of victims’ relatives said the decision “provides a pathway to both relief and a measure of closure for the victims and their families.”
Sonya Zoghlin, an attorney for Gendron, expressed her deep disappointment with the decision to seek the death penalty, noting that her client was 18 at the time of the shooting.
“Rather than a prolonged and traumatic capital prosecution, the efforts of the federal government would be better spent on combatting the forces that facilitated this terrible crime, including easy access to deadly weapons and the failure of social media companies to moderate the hateful rhetoric and images that circulate online,” Zoghlin said in a statement.
Buffalo Community Memorial Design Revealed
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, and the 5/14 Memorial Commission in Buffalo unveiled the final designs for a memorial. The memorial honors the victims of the racially motivated shooting.
The “Seeing Us” memorial will feature 10 arching interconnected pillars inscribed with the names of those killed. The project will also have a new building to serve as a hub for education, exhibitions, and other Buffalo community events.
“This tragedy shocked us, it devastated us, it pushed us to what we thought was beyond our limits. But it didn’t break us. Instead, it revealed a strength that runs deep in the veins of this city,” Hochul said at a news conference Monday to unveil the memorial design.
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Hate crimes persist
Jackson said it is important to acknowledge that hate crimes happen in marginalized communities in the Nation every day.
ABC News analyzed FBI data and found that Black people were targeted in 52.3 percent of hate crimes reported nationwide between 2020 and 2022. Over this period, more than 8,500 hate crimes were reported.
Jackson said shootings are a leading cause of death for Black people in the US.
“We’re losing people every single day,” Jackson said. “This is the number one cause of premature death for Black men and the number two cause of premature death for Black women. And it’s been the number one cause of premature death for Black youth since 2006.
“We’re fighting for policies that can address violence in all its forms and recognizing that losing one person at a party is just as traumatizing as losing a person in a mass shooting at a school and that none of those traumas outweigh the others, and that we as a country, and as a White House can work harder to save lives, from any of those tragedies,” Jackson said.