Retired police member, retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner kills 86-year-old mother

Aaron Salter spent more time chasing gunmen and arsonists as a Buffalo police officer than he did when he was working as a security guard at a supermarket in Buffalo.

After confronting and killing the assailant at Tops Grocery on Jefferson Avenue before being shot Saturday, Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia praised Salter as “a hero in our eyes.”

A gunman opened fire at a supermarket, killing 10 people, including Salter, in an attack that police said was motivated by racial prejudice. Police have not yet released the names of the victims, who are still trying to identify their relatives.

He reported late Saturday that his elderly mother, Ruth Whitfield, was among the victims. Garnell W. Whitfield is a former Buffalo Fire Commissioner.

Garnell Whitfield described her mother as a “perfect mother.” Motherless children had nothing in common with my mother. “He was a gift to all of us.”

The attack killed six people, including a woman named Katherine Massey. A member of Messi’s family confirmed his death to the Buffalo News on Saturday evening.

After Catherine Macy’s death on Saturday, her sister Barbara Macy texted a reporter and said, “She was a beautiful soul.”

Another victim’s acquaintances said he was a deacon who also worked as a driver.

When his 30-year-old daughter asked him to go to the tops on Saturday afternoon, a mother in Buffalo, New York, told the Buffalo News that she had given him permission to do so. He realized it was his daughter after watching a video of his daughter being shot by a gunman as he left the store. He has not yet heard anything in writing from the police.

Salter was one of four storefronts shot.

For most of his tenure, he has served in the North East District as a “favorite security guard” at the Jefferson Avenue facility. Aaron W. Salter is listed in the database as 55 years old.

When Salter enters the tops around 2:30 p.m., he is the first to intervene and confront the shooter. Because of his defensive tactical gear, Gramaglia claimed that Salter fired multiple shots at his attacker and hit him, but neither shot was able to cause any damage.

In a racially motivated murder, the assassins fired back and killed Salter, a black man.

He was first seen in 1992 when he and his colleagues extinguished a fire in the kitchen and caught the arsonist as he tried to flee the scene.

Three of the dead were shot dead Saturday as they left their cars in the parking lot. The other seven were found dead inside the shop. Gramaglia said three more were injured, but none of them were fatal.

Sen. The baby of Tim Kennedy’s staff was among the injured, and he said in a statement: “I am shocked and dismayed. I am upset that families will not be able to welcome their loved ones home tonight. All of this happened because one man, full of wickedness, decided to kill innocent people on purpose. “