Alleged Tops gunman Payton Gendron is escorted into the courtroom for a felony hearing before Buffalo City Court Chief Judge Craig D. Hannah in the Erie County Courthouse on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
By Ben Tsujimoto and Dan Herbeck
News Staff Reporters
Law enforcement agencies were on high alert, stationed around seemingly every corner of the Erie County Court building Thursday morning. The media – local, national and international – began waiting outside the doors of the Franklin Street and Delaware Avenue entrances as early as 7 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. hearing. And then all of the action was over in four minutes.
Those who live in the neighborhood that adjoins Tops have been trying to fathom why a gunman would target them. But in interviews, they talked as much about pride in their neighborhood than the pain they are enduring.
It was the most harrowing experience of his life, but Tops Markets employee Jerome Bridges can’t stop himself from returning to the Jefferson Avenue grocery store where 10 people were massacred and he narrowly escaped harm last weekend.
Alleged Tops gunman Payton Gendron is escorted into the courtroom for a felony hearing before Buffalo City Court Chief Judge Craig D. Hannah in the Erie County Courthouse on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
