Buffalo council president after mass shooting: 'If you're silent right now, you're not a friend of mine'

Many cried and hugged one another Sunday as they mourned friends, family members or neighbors. There were impassioned sermons and bursts of anger, as community members tried to make sense of the city's worst mass shooting.

Community holds vigil, protests in wake of racially motivated mass shooting

The community grieved and began to heal.

"This is not the time to tear up our own community, because our community did not do this," True Bethel Bishop and Buffalo Common Council President Darius G. Pridgen told those gathered, encouraging them to grieve in a healthy way.

But that doesn't mean it is a time to be silent, he said.

"I want to say this publicly, especially to my white pastors, don't tell me you're a friend of our community if you don’t address this today," Pridgen said. "Don’t tell me you love all people, and you don't stand up against racism, and you don't stand up against hatred, and you don't stand up against white supremacy.

"Because at the end of the day, if you're silent right now, you're not a friend of mine."

Those who spoke at the church Sunday morning were anything but silent. Gathered there, alongside residents, were Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, state Sen. Tim Kennedy and Erie County Legislature Chairwoman April Baskin, among others. 

In a short, fiery speech, Hochul talked about her own anger in the wake of the shooting at the Jefferson Avenue store, and decried the influence of racism and white supremacy on social media in the motives for the attack. She spoke of the need to stand up to racism and ensure that a shooting such as Saturday's never happens again.

"Yes, people will talk about Buffalo, but I want them to talk about Buffalo as the last place this ever happened," Hochul said. "We will let this end right here because we are going to rise up and all of our white brothers and sisters need to be standing up as well in churches all across this state, all across this nation, because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, because we are all God's people."

Sen. Chuck Schumer spoke at the church via Skype, decrying racism and lamenting the fact that Black Americans must still confront daily threats against their lives. He also championed the strength of the community on Buffalo's East Side. He referred to the 18-year-old shooter as an "animal," and said that the community must not let him win.

"We must tackle the scourge of gun violence and finally ban the weapons of war from our streets," Schumer said. "We must address the disturbing reality – I know the governor has talked about this – that the internet and social media enable purveyors of evil to spread their wicked words to poison the minds of others."

As the national media has descended upon Buffalo, Pridgen said he's been getting calls from people saying the 18-year-old shooter's brain wasn't fully developed. 

"Here's my response: His brain was developed enough to drive three hours to Buffalo, New York, his brain was developed enough to know how to load a weapon, his brain was developed enough to write an entire manifesto," Pridgen said, those gathered in the church shouting in agreement.

Others have asked him whether he believes the shooter had a mental illness. 

"You know whose mental illness I care about?" Pridgen said. "The people whose mother didn't come home last night, the people whose father did not come home last night, the people who witnessed it, the people who were in the store, the people on the outside – I care about their mental health."

At one point during Pridgen's sermon, a man rushed in and caused a disturbance but was quickly escorted out.

It was still a scary moment for a community not yet 24 hours removed from the Tops shooting.

It is likely that the community, especially on the East Side, will never be the same after what unfolded at 2:31 p.m. Saturday at a grocery store that, since it opened in 2003, had been a place for residents to get fresh food close to home and had become a neighborhood hub.

"Our community will never be the same, and that's a good thing. Our lives will never go back to the way they were prior to yesterday, and that's the good thing," Baskin said. "We don't need to go back. As we move forward, we must continue to demand the change that we need to see when it comes to acknowledging that Black people are unjustly targeted."

Brown, Buffalo's fifth-term mayor, said he cried Saturday night until his pillow was wet with tears.

Earlier on Saturday, he saw retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield at the scene.

"Commissioner, are you here to help?" Brown asked. 

Whitfield replied: "Yes, mayor, but I'm here because I'm looking for my mother."

They later found out that his mother, Ruth Whitfield, 86, was among those killed.

"The eyes of the world are watching us," Brown said. "Let's show them what Buffalo is made of, and out of this terrible tragedy, let's make it a triumph for every man, woman and child in this community."

At the end of the service, Pridgen had seven people in the church come forward – those who attended who had someone close to them affected by the shooting.

That included an employee at the Tops. Latisha, an assistant office manager who wished to only provide her first name, hid behind the customer service counter during the shooting and survived. She stood at the front of the church for Aaron Salter, the security guard at Tops who was killed.

Also standing was Charles Everhart Sr., whose 20-year-old grandson, Zaire Goodman, was working at the Tops as a cart attendant when he was shot in the neck. His grandson amazingly had no internal damage and was discharged at 9 p.m. Saturday from Erie County Medical Center. 

When the service concluded, many of those gathered came up to the front of the church. There, they embraced their neighbors. 

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