Tops employee survives bullet through neck from mass shooter

Zaire Goodman, 20, survived a bullet through his neck and back Saturday afternoon while collecting shopping carts in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, said Everhart.

Ten people were killed in the Buffalo’s worst-ever mass shooting. Goodman, a City Honors graduate, was among three others who were wounded.

“A couple inches to the left or the right and he wouldn’t be here,” said Everhart, who is the director of diversity and inclusion in the office of state Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo. “I know his life was spared for a reason, and he has to find out what that reason is.”

Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Broome County is accused of carrying out the shootings with an assault rifle and livestreaming video of the attack that authorities labeled racist and motivated by white supremacist ideology.

Also wounded in the attack were: Jennifer L. Warrington, 50, a pharmacist at the supermarket, who was released Saturday from ECMC, and Christopher Braden, who was still in stable condition, sources told The News.

Everhart said the gunman shot Goodman at close range, then fatally shot a woman her son was assisting with a cart. Goodman lay motionless on the ground until the shooter stepped away. He then ran across the street with another employee and called Everhart.

Goodman was discharged from Erie County Medical Center late Saturday and doing well at home on Sunday, according to Everhart. He didn’t even need stitches for his wounds, she said.

“I thank God that my grandson is still here,” said Charles Everhart Sr., Goodman’s grandfather, after a Sunday service at True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo.

Charles Everhart said his Saturday went from “zero to 60.” He was enjoying the sunshine and on his way to a graduation ceremony when he heard about the shooting and immediately called his daughter.

Zeneta said she was in another store on Niagara Falls Boulevard when she got the call from her son. She left her cart in an aisle and drove to the hospital.

Goodman, who has autism, had been working at Tops for nearly two years since the pandemic threw a wrench into his college studies, according to his mother.

But after the harrowing ordeal, he may be ready to return to Villa Maria College and pursue a degree in creative writing, she said.

Everhart said her son is working through what happened and will be okay.

“He’s in good spirits,” she said. “He’s a free-spirited kid. This happened to him and now he’s done with it.”

The most important thing: Goodman was home.

Everhart said her son was playing video games with a friend Sunday afternoon.

Coverage of this story is being provided free to all readers. Please support our journalism and the newsroom providing this coverage by subscribing to The Buffalo News.