This weekend marks a sad chapter in Western New York history.
Sunday is the one-year anniversary of a dark episode in the recent history of the United States of America. It’ll be a day in Buffalo, across our region and throughout the entire country in which 10 innocent victims of shooting violence will be mourned.
We’re speaking, of course, about those who lost their lives on May 14, 2022 when Payton Gendron, a white male from across the state with hate in his heart and the intent to inflict harm, drove to the Tops grocery story on Jefferson Avenue on the East Side of Buffalo and gunned down 10 people whom he did not know but hated just the same.
It was described as “the worst nightmare any community can face.” We agree.
One of the 10 people lost on that day was a Niagara County resident, Tops security guard Aaron Salter Jr., who bravely entered the store in an effort to take down Gendron before more killing could be done.
Salter gave his life in an effort to protect others.
He is owed a tremendous debt, the kind that should require all of us to remind ourselves each year to pay him the respect he deserves when this horrible anniversary comes around again each year.
This incident, like so many others that have become so regular and prominent in communities like Buffalo across America in recent years, says a lot about where we stand as a nation on the important issues of guns and gun control.
There’s a lot of arguing and few answers.
As an editorial board, this weekend we’ve decided to keep it to the facts of this horrible anniversary: A person full of hatred armed with a gun took the lives of 10 people who were simply shopping at a local grocery store. The attack left three others injured.
Join us in remembering the victims of this senseless massacre:
• Aaron Salter, 55, of Lockport
• Ruth Whitfield, 86 of Buffalo
• Pearl Young, 77, of Buffalo
• Celestine Chaney, 65, of Buffalo
• Roberta A. Drury, 32, of Buffalo
• Heyward Patterson, 67, of Buffalo
• Marcus D. Morrison, 52 of Buffalo
• Andre Mackneil, 53, of Auburn
• Geraldine Talley, 62 of Buffalo
• Katherine Massey, 72, of Buffalo
Shooting survivors:
• Zaire Goodman, 20, of Buffalo
• Jennifer Warrington, 50, of Tonawanda
• Christopher Braden, 55, of Lackawanna