Buffalo Victims of Tops Market Mass Shooting: Names, Photos

A retired police officer named Aaron Salter, Jr. who was working as a security guard. Ruth Whitfield, the 86-year-old mother of a retired fire commissioner. A woman who went to pick up groceries named Katherine Massey. A 77-year-old grandmother who was a missionary named Pearl Young.

Those are just some of the 10 victims of the Buffalo mass shooter. You can read about each victim later in this story as their names are released. The other victims are Celestine Chaney; Heyward Patterson; Andre Mackneil; Geraldine Talley; Margus Morrison; and Roberta Drury.

“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said in a news conference. “It was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community.”

According to authorities, 11 of the 13 victims who were shot were Black and two were white. The victims include four store employees.

Payton Gendron is the suspect accused of killing at least 10 people at the grocery store in store in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, May 14, 2022, while live-streaming video. Gendron was taken into custody at the scene, Buffalo Police said. Three others were wounded. Gendron is facing first-degree murder charges in New York state court and could also face federal charges, including hate crimes, officials said. The names of the victims have not been released yet.

A racist and anti-Semitic manifesto and a Twitch livestream were attributed online to the gunman, but authorities have not verified those accounts. A graphic video emerged that shows bodies lying in the parking lot as law enforcement officers take the suspect into custody. Gendron is from Conklin, New York. He said in the manifesto he is an 18-year-old college student and a self-described white supremacist. In the manifesto, he said he targeted a city with a large Black population.

State Senator Tim Kennedy tweeted that the son of a member of his staff was among the injured. “Tonight, a member of my staff, my extended family, is at ECMC when she should be at home. She’s sitting in a hospital waiting room, because her beautiful, extraordinary son was shot while he was simply doing his job,” he tweeted.

Here are a few verified fundraisers, according to GoFundMe:

The families of the victims of Buffalo shooting
Buffalo Memorial
Buffalo Mass Shooting Help The Families Fund
Buffalo Tragedy Donate to victims families.

Here are the victims, as they become identified. All of the victims will be added to the list below as they are identified.

Ruth Whitfield

According to the Buffalo News, Whitfield, one of the victims, was 86-years-old and the mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield. Whitfield, who was Black, was a mother of four.

She was shopping at the time of the shooting, the newspaper reported.

“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,” Whitfield told the newspaper.

Aaron Salter Jr.

Aaron Salter was a retired Buffalo police officer and beloved security guard.

Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia called him “a hero in our eyes” during a news conference. Salter confronted and shot the gunman before the gunman shot him to death.

According to the Buffalo News, Salter was remembered as a “beloved security guard.” Salter was Black, according to the Buffalo News. A manifesto attributed to the shooter makes it clear he is a white supremacist who chose Buffalo because it has a large Black population.

“One of the individuals inside the store is a security guard, a beloved security guard, who is a retired Buffalo Police officer, a hero in our eyes, engaged the suspect, fired multiple shots, struck the suspect, but because he had heavy armor plating on, that bullet had no round,” the police commissioner said in the news conference. The suspect then killed the security guard, police said.

The Daily Beast reported that Salter had worked at the grocery store for four years.

As a police officer, Salter, 55, worked in the Northeast District, according to the newspaper, which added that Salter’s gunfire did not take down the shooter because he was wearing “protective tactical gear.”

“Today is a shock,” his son, Aaron Salter III, told The Daily Beast. “I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today. He’s a hero.”

Salter left behind three children. According to The Daily Beast, he entered the Buffalo police department immediately after graduating from high school.

Read more about Salter here.

Pearl Young

News anchor Madison Carter tweeted a photo of Young. She wrote,

“Pearly Young, 77, was killed today in #Buffalo shopping for groceries. For 25 years she ran a pantry where every Saturday she fed people in Central Park. Every. Saturday. She loved singing, dancing, & being with family. She was mother, grandma, & missionary. Gone too soon.”

Police and family later gave her name as Pearl. “Pearl was a long-term substitute teacher with the Buffalo Public School District and recently worked at Emerson School of Hospitality,” her family told CNN.

Katherine Massey

The Buffalo News, which confirmed that Katherine Massey was among the victims, reported that she “had gone to the store to pick up some groceries.”

“She was a beautiful soul,” her sister, Barbara Massey, told the newspaper.

According to NBC News, Massey was a community advocate. She “spent her life fighting for her community and rebuilding the area surrounding Cherry Street,” helping get a mural and trees into the block, picking up trash, and donating supplies to schools, NBC reported.

“She did a lot, never stopped. She had a task a day,” her niece Dawn Massey, told NBC. “She was so prevalent in the community. She was so adamant about her community, where her family resides.”

Roberta A. Drury

Drury, 32, was from Buffalo. Her brother’s restaurant wrote on Facebook:

Dalmatia family and friends. It is heavy on our hearts that we confirm the events that unfolded yesterday. We lost our dear sister, Roberta Drury in this tragic senceless {sic} act. She was a bright light in the world always laughing and smiling. We extend our deepest condolences to officer, Aaron Salter Jr’s family and the families of the other victims. Aaron was such a nice man always said hello when we did our shopping at Tops. Our community will heal in time as we are the city of of good neighbors. Hate has no home here. Please take care of each other in these tough times.

Her sister Amanda described her to ABC News as “vibrant and outgoing” and someone who would “talk to anyone.”

Margus D. Morrison

Morrison, 52, was from Buffalo.

A man who knew Morrison wrote on Facebook, “Last night I couldn’t even sleep. That sick demonic SOB killed Margus Morrison and one of my youth football teammate’s mom…Prayers going up for my hometown and my old neighborhood who are shock right now, as am I.”

Another man wrote, “RIH MARGUS,YOU DIDN’T DESERVE WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE OF THAT RACIST SOB.HIS BROTHER FRED ASKED ME TO POST THIS 💔💔💔”

Andre Mackneil

Mackneil, 52, was from Buffalo. According to Beyond the Railroad, “Andre Mackneil, 53, was one of 10 people killed in Saturday’s racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo. Mackneil, who was engaged, was at the grocery store to buy a birthday cake for his 3-year-old son, according to family members and @niagaraaction. #buffaloshooting”

Geraldine Talley

Talley, 62, was from Buffalo.

According to Niagara Action, “Geraldine Chapman Talley, 62, was described by her niece, Kesha Chapman, as a gentle soul.”

“She loved everybody. She was always smiling. She didn’t like confrontation. She wanted everything to be easy and full of love.” Geraldine was killed while working at Tops on Saturday, May 14th, 2022, and leaves behind her two adult children.”

Celestine Chaney

Chaney, 65, was from Buffalo. According to WGRZ, Chaney had “six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. She was also a cancer survivor.

Heyward Patterson

According to WGRZ, Patterson was a deacon who “would often help drive people who needed transportation to the Jefferson Avenue store.”

Patterson, 67, was from Buffalo.

Those who were injured but did not have life-threatening injuries were Zaire Goodman, 20; Jennifer Warrington, 50; and Christopher Braden, 55.

ABC News reported that he was shot inside his truck in the grocery store parking lot and was described as a “loving person. He leaves behind a wife and daughter.”

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