Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "I'm angry my friends," said New York Governor Kathy Hochul from the pulpit of True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo Sunday morning.
"Lord, forgive the anger in my heart right now. I know it doesn't belong there. I was raised to love, respect and care. But to hear these stories of pain in the community that I love so well, I'm angry."
Acknowledging that the community is broken hearted and crushed in spirit, after a racially motivated mass shooting in which 13 people were shot, leaving 10 dead, Hochul told the congregation that the Lord's love will rise up and crushed spirits will rise again as a symbol of strength to the rest of the world.
"This was not a random act of violence, we've seen enough of that. We've seen what happens when there are too many guns on our streets. We've buried them right here," she said, a reference to True Bethel Baptist Church.
Related
"This is in a league of its own, a whole new dimension. You've attacked people because of the color of their skin. because you're a coward and I want to silence those voices."
Related
Hochul said people will talk about Buffalo, but she wants them to talk about Buffalo as the last place this ever happened. "This is going to end right here," she said.
"All of our white brothers and sisters need to be standing up as well in churches all across this state and this nation because an attack on one of us, is an attack on all of us because we are all God's people."
Hochul finished by asking the Lord to forgive the anger in her heart, and to channel it in to her passion to continue to fight to protect people, and to get guns off the streets and silence the voices of hatred and racism and white supremacy all over the internet.
Mayor Byron Brown, State Attorney General Latisha James and State Senator Tim Kennedy also spoke at the Sunday service at True Bethel, where Bishop Darius Pridgen is Pastor. He is also President of the Buffalo Common Council.