Three, including Sen. Tim Kennedy, help save a community leader's life: 'Bright light on a dark day'

Zaire Goodman, who survived a gunshot wound to the neck at the hands of a shooter inside the Tops Market, was turning 21. So his friends and family organized a party.

But an event celebrating a spared life almost turned into a tragedy when 61-year-old Marnetta Malcolm went into sudden cardiac arrest. Fortunately, three guests at the party – Mo Sumbundu, Tearah Massenburg and State Sen. Tim Kennedy – possessed the skills and fortitude to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her, saving her life.

"God shined a bright light on a dark day," is how Kennedy, 45, views the event.

The senator relayed that about 25 to 30 guests remained in the Canisius student center on Hughes Street at a party organized for Goodman by Malcolm and other friends. Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, in town for the University at Buffalo's graduation and for food distribution in the affected neighborhood, had stopped by the party, So had Mayor Byron W. Brown, as well as Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes.

"It was a roomful of love with family and friends," Kennedy said. "A beautiful celebration."

But suddenly, several guests began yelling for a doctor. Malcolm was on the floor, unconscious. She was face down. Sumbundu held her head while Kennedy checked her pulse. There was none.

A former occupational therapist before launching his political career back in 2004, old skills began returning to Kennedy's head and hands. He began the rhythmic series of chest compressions he learned more than 25 years ago. He pushed on Malcolm's chest, so did Sumbundu, and so did Massenburg.

"I saw the senator, but at first I didn't even know it was him," said Massenburg, 41, a licensed practical nurse at Elderwood in Cheektowaga. "I jumped on the other side. But I couldn't get a pulse. Neither could he."

The trio continued applying the compressions, all the while gaining no response from Malcolm. They shouted for an ambulance, realizing that a defibrillator's electric shock was now desperately needed.

"We just kept working," Massenburg recalled. "Just kept going, kept going, kept going."

Someone retrieved a defibrillator, the device to jump-start a stopped heart with electric shock. The gathered crowd began praying out loud, Kennedy recalled. So did he.

"I was praying my Hail Marys and Our Fathers," he said. "And I whispered in her ear that she had some unfinished business here. She couldn't leave us now."

The trio shocked their patient twice, keeping her going until an emergency squad from the Buffalo Fire Department arrived. Finally, Malcolm took a few gasps of air, but only after about 10 minutes without a pulse. The crew rushed her to Buffalo General Medical Center, where Massenburg said she has begun a slow recovery.

Joyce Stokes said her sister has been moved out of intensive care and is making progress in the hospital's cardiovascular unit. She believes Malcolm had been working too hard as part of the community response to the shootings.

"She's been up there every day," Stokes said. "Going shopping for people, giving away food. She's been part of everything.

"We told her 'Marnetta, can you take a couple of days break?'" she added. "But she wouldn't do it."

Neither Kennedy nor Massenburg had ever previously administered CPR. But they also never forgot their training.

"I wasn't scared during it all because it was just like – go!" Massenburg said. "There was no time to be nervous. It wasn't till I got home that I got nervous. I started pacing all around the house."

Kennedy said it all hit him later, too, especially after the events of the week – emotional in themselves.

"It has been a spiritual and emotional roller coaster, because we knew the only way to combat hate is through love," the senator said. "So in this moment, with everybody praying to spare Marnetta while she was slipping away, and now knowing she is in stable condition at Buffalo General, well, that's as powerful and divine as it gets."

Kennedy called Malcolm "an icon in the community, a legendary figure and an extraordinary leader" who has been active in many causes. He believes Malcolm was spared not only because of quick action, but by those praying around her too.

Remembering how to administer CPR, he added, didn't hurt.

"You never know," he said. "It shows the importance of getting that CPR training."

Stokes said she has called to thank those who worked on her sister during all that time of uncertainty.

"The doctor at Buffalo General said starting CPR saved her life," she said. "They could have given up, but they didn't."