Buffalo Shooting; Charities, Local Businesses Donate To Victims.

 

"Following the shooting at Tops Markets in Buffalo, local businesses and charities have shown commiseration with the families of victims and the community by donating"

Several charities and businesses have announced ways to help the victims of the shooting.

M&T Bank announced a $500,000 donation to support victims, their families, and long-term rebuilding initiatives in the community.

New Era Cap announced a $300,000 donation to assist the victims and community.

KeyBank reported a $250,000 grant to support victims’ families.

The Thurman Thomas Family Foundation has raised over $125,000, including a $10,000 donation from the foundation itself.

Basil Family Dealerships reported a donation of $35,000 Tuesday to the Thurman Thomas Family Foundation.

Bills DE Shaq Lawson reported a contribution of $10,000 to the foundation.

Bills Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed have also pledged support.

The Imagine for Youth foundation donated a portion of the proceeds from the second Micah Hyde Charity Softball Game to the families of the victims.

Delta Sonic reported a $100,000 donation to FeedMore WNY to help families in the community to access food.

NYS Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association has reported a donation of $10,000 to FeedMore WNY.

FeedMore WNY has been distributing food to community members affected by the shooting and providing assistance to those in the community. FeedMore continues to accept donations and volunteers.

Balanced Beams Learning and Play Center announced it will be donating all proceeds from this week’s playgroups to support families of the victims.

More donations have been coming in and is also being encouraged as the community is still in shock of the recent shooting.

The shooting which occurred last Saturday by an 18-year-old white who was wearing a military gear and also streaming live with a helmet camera opened fire with a rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo New York, killing 10 people and injuring 3 others in what was perceived as “racially motivated violent extremism.”

 

According to the Police, he shot 11 Black and 2 white victims before surrendering to authorities in a rampage he broadcasted live on Twitch. A clip apparently from his Twitch feed, posted on social media, showed the gunman who was identified as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York, arriving at the supermarket in his car. He was said to have traveled about 200 miles southeast to Buffalo for the attack. 

Twitch had said in a statement that it ended Gendron's transmission “less than two minutes after the violence started.”

The Police gained entrance to the store and confronted the gunman in the vestibule. He tried to take his own life by putting his rifle to his own neck, but two officers talked him into dropping the gun.

Although he's been arraigned in court on murder charge, the massacre however has sent unsettling waves of racial tensions, backed up by gun violence and a handful of hate crimes. 

At the earlier news briefing, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia expressly called the shooting a hate crime.

“This was pure evil. It was (a) straight up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community, outside of the City of Good Neighbors ... coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us,” Garcia said.

American President, Joe Biden in a statement said he and the first lady were praying for the victims and their families.

“We still need to learn more about the motivation for today’s shooting as law enforcement does its work, but we don’t need anything else to state a clear moral truth: A racially motivated hate crime is abhorrent to the very fabric of this nation,” he said. “Any act of domestic terrorism, including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology, is antithetical to everything we stand for in America.”

Tops Friendly Markets with which Gendron was identified with had also released a statement saying, “We are shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”