The Lives Lost in a Buffalo Supermarket

A brave security guard. A breast cancer survivor. A church deacon who drove locals to and from the grocery store. A community advocate who wrote the local newspaper about the need for stronger gun control. These were among the 10 people killed in the racist attack in Buffalo on Saturday in which a white 18-year-old opened fire at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood.

The gunman shot 11 Black people and two white people, and live streamed the attack on Twitch, according to the Buffalo Police Department. A manifesto he was believed to have posted on social media before the mass shooting included anti-immigrant views, including a white supremacist conspiracy theory asserting the existence of a political effort to replace white Americans with people of color.

Three of the victims survived with injuries described as non-life threatening: Zaire Goodman, 20; Jennifer Warrington, 50; and Christopher Braden, 55.

These are the lives that were lost:

Aaron Salter

Salter, 55, was the security guard at the Tops Friendly Market where the attack occurred. A former police officer for the city, he was by officials for his courageous actions. Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia described him as a “hero in our eyes.”

As the gunman opened fire, Salter confronted Gendron and fired back; at least one of the bullets hit and was stopped by the shooter’s armor-plated vest, The Buffalo News reported.

Salter, a Lockport, New York native, was also a father, a bass player, a former substitute teacher, and an amateur scientist passionate about creating the world’s first car engine powered by water, according to the Buffalo News.

Celestine Chaney

Chaney, 65, was a breast cancer survivor, a regular at the church and grandmother who loved bingo and going shopping, the Buffalo News reported.

One of her granddaughters, Dominique Brown, called her a “little lady full of spunk,” according to the newspaper. “”She was probably the sweetest person you could meet,” Brown said. “Very loving, very giving, very kind.”

Deacon Heyward Patterson

Patterson, 67, frequently drove locals to the grocery store who would otherwise have a hard time getting there, Buffalo NBC affiliate WGRZ reported.

The Buffalo News described him a regular at the State Tabernacle Church of God where he would welcome people in. Patterson would frequently volunteer at the soup kitchen and to clean the church.

“He would give the shirt off his back,” Tirzah Patterson, Patterson’s former wife, told the newspaper. “That’s who he is. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. Whatever he had, he’d give it to you. You ask, he’ll give it. If he don’t got it, he’ll make a way to get it or send you to the person that can give it to you. He’s going to be missed a lot.”

Geraldine Talley

Talley, 62, arrived at the supermarket with her fiancée. He survived while wandering down a separate aisle, ABC News reported.

Kaye Chapman-Johnson, Talley’s sister, told the network she was devastated. “Our sister, we had so many plans together, so many plans, and everything has just been stripped away from us,” she said. “Our lives will definitely never be the same again.”

Margus D. Morrison

Morrison, 52, was a Buffalo native and father of three, according to local ABC-affiliate 7-News.

Andre Mackneil

Mackneil, (spelled Mackniel in some news reports) was a 53-year-old native of Auburn, New York native. He was at the supermarket on Satruday to get a birthday cake for his son, the Post reported.

Katherine Massey

Just a year ago, Massey, 72, had a letter calling for stronger gun control and federal oversight published in the Buffalo News. “Current pursued remedies mainly inspired by mass killings – namely, universal background checks and banning assault weapons – essentially exclude the sources of our city’s gun problems,” she wrote. “Illegal handguns, via out of state gun trafficking, are the primary culprits.”

Massey came from a close-knit family and was involved as a community member in local schools and elections, the Washington Post reported. “She was the most wonderful person in the world. She’d cut grass in the local park, do the trees, give kids on the street toys. That was my sister, anyone she could help,” Barbara Massey, her sister, told the paper.

Pearl Young

Young, 77, loved the church and was a regular at its soup kitchen where she would prepare and distribute food, according to Post. “My mom just felt that she needed to give back to people,” Damon Young, her son, told the Post.

She was known in particular for baking cookies and cakes and cooking big pots of vegetable soup, the Buffalo News reported. Young also taught Sunday school and led youth groups, in addition to working as a substitute teacher.

Roberta A. Drury

Drury, 32, showed up for her family when they needed her. She moved from Syracuse to Buffalo to help her older brother and take care of his children once he was diagnosed with leukemia, the Washington Post reported.

“She dropped everything to move out there and play house aunt,” Amanda Drury, their sister, told the paper.

Ruth Whitfield

Whitfield, 86, was a mother of four, according to the Buffalo News.

Retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield, her son, told the newspaper that their mother would regularly take him and his brother to football practice, and took special care of their father. “My mom was the consummate mom. My mother was a mother to the motherless,” he said. “She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same thing.”