When Tops Markets opened its Jefferson Avenue supermarket in Buffalo 19 years ago, residents who had been asking for a full-service grocery store for more than a decade rejoiced that it had finally come to their neighborhood.
But after Saturday, the joy will be darkened forever by a horrible tragedy.
Ten people were shot at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday in a horrific mass shooting that authorities were quick to call “pure evil” and racially motivated. The shooting stunned a community enjoying a warm May afternoon, with shoppers filling the Tops in a predominantly black neighborhood at 1275 Jefferson Ave.
At around 2:31 p.m. Saturday, an 18-year-old gunman who was more than three hours away traveled to the store and killed 10 people and wounded three others in what law enforcement officials described as a felony. racially motivated hatred.
A state of commotion spread through the neighborhood and beyond, in what was surely the darkest day in the history of the supermarket chain. Four Tops employees were shot, including a recently retired Buffalo police officer working security for the store, who was killed, police officials said.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” Tops spokeswoman Kathy Sautter said. “Our top priority remains the health and well-being of our associates and customers. We appreciate the quick response from local law enforcement and are providing all available resources to assist authorities in the ongoing investigation.”
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Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Broome County, was arraigned before Buffalo City Court Judge Craig Hannah on one count of first-degree murder. If he is convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
By Saturday night, Tops had not commented further as he digested the news and waited for more responses.
Other nearby employers also sent messages to their workers. The Wegmans supermarket chain sent an email to its employees on Saturday, noting that the shooting occurred just a few miles from its Amherst Street store and assuring workers that its “commitment to your personal safety, health and well-being has never been compromised.” so strong”. Wegmans closed its Buffalo-area stores at 9 p.m. Saturday to give employees time to process the event, with plans to reopen at 6 a.m. Sunday.
It affected many people who tick a clock, especially at Tops, a chain of 150 full-service supermarkets in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
Frank DeRiso, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local One, which represents Tops employees, said he has had discussions with Tops executives and that the company will make sure employees at the Jefferson Avenue store “receive the proper care they need. and don’t lose any paychecks while the store is closed for an undetermined period of time.
For DeRiso, involved with the unions since 1975 and president of a local union since 1990, he has never been involved in a situation like the one that unfolded on Saturday. DeRiso, based in Oriskany, near Utica, planned to travel to Buffalo on Monday.
Here’s what we know and don’t know about the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo.
“When are we going to wake up as a society? It’s just terrible,” he said. “And then, you know, you’re a customer, you go there to shop on a Saturday afternoon, not expecting that you’re not going to come home. It doesn’t make sense, it’s stupid. And something has to be done about it.” .”
The UFCW represents about 70 to 80 workers at the Jefferson Avenue store, of whom 20 to 25 were likely working at the store when the shooting began Saturday afternoon, a busy shopping time for many residents at the supermarket. close to your home.
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Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.
Reference-buffalonews.com