Four Employees among the Victims of Tops Shooting in Buffalo

Buffalo, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Four employees were among the victims of a racially motivated shooting Saturday, when a gunman opened fire on in the parking lot of a grocery store in Buffalo. 

Officials said an 18-year-old gunman opened fire Saturday afternoon, starting in the parking lot of the Tops Friendly Market. Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, New York, allegedly got out of his car in the supermarket’s parking lot and shot four people. Three of those victims died, and one was in the hospital as of Sunday night. 

Then the shooter entered the store and opened fire. 

According to the Buffalo Police Department, the store’s security guard, Aaron Salter, stepped up to intervene, shooting Gendron. However, because Gendron was wearing body armor, he was unharmed, and returned fire, killing Salter. 

Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia said Salter was “a hero in our eyes,” and said he probably saved some lives. 

Authorities said three other employees at the store were also killed in the shooting that ultimately killed 10, and injured three more. 

Gendron, officials said, livestreamed the attack, including in the stream images of his gun with a racist epithet written on it. The streaming platform Twitch issued a statement Saturday saying Gendron’s account had been taken down for violating the company’s terms of service. 

Officials are saying the attack was racially motivated, and that Gendron drove more than 200 miles to get to the grocery store located in a predominantly black area. Investigators said they are working their way through a 180-page manifesto like document where Gendron lays out his beliefs, including his detailed plans for the attack. 

The shooting comes just a little over a year after the mass shooting at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Col. That shooting left 10 dead, including a police officer. 

Kathy Sautter, a spokeswoman for Tops Friendly Markets, told the Washington Post the company was “shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence.” She said Tops appreciated the quick response by law enforcement and was providing all available resources to assist in the investigation. 

The New York Police Department took swift precautionary action once Gendron was arrested. Deploying additional units to Black churches and other houses of worship in communities of color across the city, Brendan Ryan, a police spokesman said law enforcement was operating “out of an abundance of caution.” 

Business owners were in a state of high-alert as well. 

On Sunday, a pizza parlor in Buffalo closed down after a customer allegedly threatened to do the same as Gendron had done. 

Buffalo Police said Joseph Chowaniec, 52, called Bocce Pizza on Delaware Avenue and threatened to “shoot up Bocce’s like the Tops on Jefferson,” while complaining about a pizza he had ordered a few days before. The pizza restaurant closed down shortly after the threats, and police investigated the call. 

Police said Chowaniec was charged with making terroristic threats, and allegedly also made threats at Southern Tier Brewing Company in downtown Buffalo as well. 

At least one Tops employee said they were traumatized by the incident. 

A woman, identified only as Latisha, the assistant office manager at the store, said she is struggling.

"I can't sleep. I can eat a little bit, but I just keep hearing gunshots and just seeing the bodies," she told the Buffalo News. 

Latisha said she hid behind the customer service counter and called 9-1-1 while she was laying on the floor. 

For her, it was brought back memories of another Buffalo shooting – the City Grill shooting in 2010 when a gunman opened fire at the restaurant killing four, one of whom was Latisha’s brother, Danyell Mackin. 

"I was there when that happened," Latisha said. "And that was a massacre, and now I have to relive a whole other massacre." 

Latisha said she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to go back to work at the place she’s worked at for the past 13 years. 

Tops in a statement on Saturday, said it will reopen the store after authorities have done processing the scene. And, it said, it will prioritize getting the store’s employees the counseling and support they need.

Share This Article: