Buffalo community holds memorial 1 month after deadly supermarket shooting

BUFFALO, New York (WABC) — The city of Buffalo took another step toward reclaiming itself with a memorial on Tuesday, one month after the horrific mass shooting at a local supermarket that claimed the lives of 10 people.

“We are a loving and resilient community, and community that will always remember,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said.

That’s what Tuesday’s ceremony was all about. Remembering the victims killed in the mass shooting one month ago, and hearing from those who survived.

“My goal is to return to my home, Topps Market is right here on Jefferson Avenue, I am excited about the reopening, I am not sure how I will feel walking in there,” survivor Fragrance Harris Stanfield said.

The Topps Market is where a teenage gunman went on a shooting spree fueled by white supremacy and empowered by a semi-automatic rifle. Ten people were killed.

“We remember the Buffalo 10, say it with me — the Buffalo 10,” said April Baskin, Erie County Legislature chair.

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“People thought they were going to come here and hurt us, kill us and stop our movement as a people, what you’ve done is created more advocates, you created more fighters, you created more people who will not have you treating us and talking to us in any kind of way,” assemblywoman Crystal People-Stokes said.

Zeneta Everhard’s son was injured in the shooting. Last week, she testified before Congress, pushing for more gun control. On Tuesday, she spoke of how he is healing, and their gratitude.

“This is the city of good neighbors,” Everhard said. “I knew that before this and I really know that now.”
There were also thanks for the first responders who arrived on the scene one minute after the first 911 call.

But this community needs time to mourn and time to grieve in order to heal.

“This kind of hurt doesn’t go away in 30 days,” People-Stokes said. “It doesn’t go away in 30 days.”

There was another remembrance ceremony also held Tuesday afternoon at a nearby school in Buffalo.

At night, nearly a dozen candlelight vigils will be held throughout that city — a way for people in all neighborhoods there to remember the victims of that mass shooting.

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