Ten people were gunned down at a Buffalo supermarket May 14 in a horrifying mass shooting that officials were quick to label as "pure evil" and racially motivated.
The shooting stunned a community basking in a warm May afternoon, with shoppers filling the Tops in a predominantly Black neighborhood at 1275 Jefferson Ave.Â
Of the 13 people shot, 11 were Black and two were white, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. All 10 of the victims who were killed were Black, said Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. The suspect is white. The killings are being investigated as a racist hate crime.
The accused gunman, Payton S. Gendron, pleaded guilty to 15 charges in State Supreme Court in Buffalo on Nov. 28, 2022. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Feb. 15, 2023.Â
Families of victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Tops on Jefferson Avenue have their chance to tell the court today about their loved ones, and how the hate crime May 14 affected their lives.Â
More so than those in other years, the most impactful stories of the past 12 months will reverberate far into the future. Two, in particular – The Tops mass shooting and the Christmastime blizzard – will stick with us – for the sheer horror.
