Aaron Salter’s time as a supermarket security guard turned out to be deadlier than his decades on the Buffalo police force, hunting down gunmen and arsonists alike.
Described by Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia as “a hero in our eyes,” Salter is credited with confronting and shooting the shooter at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue before he was shot to death on Saturday.
Salter was one of 10 people killed when a shooter gunned down shoppers and employees at the supermarket in an attack police say was a hate crime fueled by racial animosity. Police have yet to release the names of the victims as they work to contact family members.
People are also reading…
Retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield said Saturday night that his mother, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, was among the victims.
The mass murder in Buffalo’s African-American community, and the 18-year-old accused of committing it, quickly came to be seen as something even bigger than an unprecedented tragedy in Buffalo.
“My mother was an accomplished mother,” said Garnell Whitfield. “My mother was a mother to orphans. She was a blessing to all of us.”
Six of the victims were shoppers, including a woman named Katherine Massey, who had gone to the store to buy some groceries. A family member confirmed Massey’s death to The Buffalo News on Saturday night.
Ruth Whitfield, left, was killed in the Tops Markets mass shooting in Buffalo on May 14, 2022. She is shown with her husband, Garnell Whitfield Sr.
Courtesy of the family of Ruth Whitfield
Barbara Massey, the sister of Katherine Massey, texted a reporter Saturday night saying, “She was a beautiful soul.”
A church deacon who works as a driver was also killed, according to friends.
A mother who lives on Riley Street in Buffalo told The Buffalo News that she sent her 30-year-old daughter to walk to Tops to pick something up on Saturday afternoon. Her daughter never made it home, but the mother later saw a video of her daughter circulating on Facebook and recognized the girl leaving the store and being one of the first shot by the gunman. She is still waiting for the official word from the police.
Four others who were shot were store employees, including Salter.
Described as a “beloved security guard” who had worked at the Jefferson Avenue location for many years, he spent much of his career as an officer working in the Northeast District. Database records list Aaron W. Salter as age 55.
Salter was the first to defend lives and attack the assailant when he entered Tops around 2:30 p.m. Gramaglia said Salter fired several rounds at the assailant and managed to hit him, but the bullets did no damage due to the assailant’s protective tactical gear.
The assailant returned fire, in what is considered a racially motivated killing spree, killing Salter, who is black.
Salter appeared in numerous Buffalo News stories over the years, beginning in 1992 when he and his partner put out a kitchen fire and caught the arsonist as he tried to escape.
A police officer comforts a man outside Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, where a shooter killed 10 people Saturday.
Derek Gee/Buffalo News
Over the years, he’s done everything from issuing parking tickets and arresting beer thieves to tracking down a gunman on the street and retrieving illegal firearms. It appears that he also spent years as a school resource officer with Buffalo Public Schools, according to SeeThroughNY.
He recounted how he dealt with a life-threatening incident in 1996 when he and his partner responded to a robbery in progress. A 25-year-old man appeared behind them and pointed a loaded 12-gauge shotgun at their faces.
“My first reaction was to duck,” Salter told The Buffalo News. “I don’t enjoy looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and if it hadn’t been for my partner shooting first, it would have been a golden opportunity to shoot us. My partner probably saved us.”
His partner’s shot missed and the man eventually surrendered to the SWAT team.
US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the Justice Department “is investigating this matter as a hate crime and a racially motivated act of violent extremism.”
Of the people killed on Saturday, three were killed in the parking lot. The remaining seven were killed inside the store. Three other people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Gramaglia said.
One of those injured was the son of a staffer for Senator Tim Kennedy, who released a statement saying, “I am devastated. I am angry. And I am thinking of the families who will not welcome a loved one home.” tonight. All because an individual filled with pure evil made a calculated decision to senselessly take innocent lives.”
Coverage of this story is provided free of charge to all readers. Support our journalism and the newsroom that provides this coverage by subscribing to The Buffalo News.
Reference-buffalonews.com