Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It has been two days since the tragic mass shooting that took place at the Tops Friendly Market in the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo that left 10 people dead and three others wounded.
It was Saturday night when Buffalo Police was able to complete the process of identifying the 10 victims of the shooting, and going through the somber process of notifying the families.
The eldest of those victims, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, was simply at the Tops on that Saturday to grab some groceries after visiting her husband, Garnell Whitfield Sr., at a nearby nursing home, which she did every day to tend to her husband. Sadly, her life was taken that afternoon at the hands of an 18-year-old carrying out a racially motivated hate crime.
"My mom was my heart. She was the glue that held our family together. She taught us how to love," said Garnell Whitfield, Jr., her son and former Buffalo Fire Commissioner on Monday. "My mom loved us unconditionally. She loved this community, she loved people unconditionally. And for her to lose her life at the hands of a hate monger, an evil person, is more than we can bear. We're crying, we're grieving, we're never going to be able to fill a hole in our hearts. Never. We're never going to be able to replace her."
The Whitfield family was overcome with emotion on Monday, as they had a mother, grandmother, wife and best friend taken from them too soon. As the family stood together and shed tears together on Monday, they also expressed their anger that someone who had been evaluated for mental health issues was allowed to walk and carry out an evil act.
"She's my father, our grandfather, she's his caretaker," Whitfield said further of his mother. "He's been up here at High Point for last eight years and religiously, every day, she goes and sees about him. She takes care of him, she irons his clothes, she clipped his nails, she does his mustache. Whatever he needed to maintain some sense of dignity and quality of life, she poured herself into that. Last Saturday, she was doing that same thing. When she left there tired from having given herself to someone else, she went to the grocery store and lost her life.
"We're gonna cry, and we're gonna grieve, but that's not all we're gonna do, because we're angry. We're mad about it. And unless we find some positive way to channel that energy, we're going to do something that we're going to regret. That's the truth of the matter. Because we're tired of getting kicked. We're tired of getting hurt. We're tired of losing our loved ones to senseless violence."
While Whitfield believes that his family will grow closer as a result of this tragedy in their lives, some wounds will never be able to heal the same.
"What do we tell our father, who is still up here at this nursing home, who does not know that the love of his life, 68 years they're married, what do we tell him? Where she is? He's missing her now, a couple of days have passed. She doesn't miss a couple of days. What do we tell him? How do we go forward and provide the kind of care, continuity of care that he's accustomed to and that she made sure he had in her lifetime? How do we do that with her not being here?"
Also during Monday's gatherings for Ruth Whitfield, the Whitfield family was joined by attorneys Ben Crump, Terry Connors and Ken Abbarno, who are representing the family as they search for answers as to how the shooter was able to carry out such an act of violence on the Buffalo community.
"What do we do in the wake of this tragedy?", said Crump during the gathering at Engine 21, Ladder 6. "The hope is, as I talked to Garnell and Angela and Robin and Raymond - her four children, her legacy - they say their mother will want something positive to come from this tragedy. Hopefully, the highest leaders in our nation are listening, that we can finally get some federal legislation to address this hate that is proliferating in America. We're better than this. She was a woman of love, and her legacy will not be defined by this hateful act. The family will define her legacy with love. The City of Buffalo will define her legacy of love, and hopefully you all will help define her legacy, one of love, not hate. That is the message from Ruth Whitfield."
Crump also says this shooting in Buffalo is an opportunity to try and finish the policy that was initiated following an incident in 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina when another young white supremacist killed nine black people in a church.
"We talked about then having an anti-Black hate crime bill passed by the U.S. Congress, but it stalled," he said. "We saw last year and we celebrated it, that they passed the anti-Asian hate bill. So maybe in the wake of this tragedy here in Buffalo, New York, just maybe, we can finally get the anti-Black hate crime bill passed in the United States Congress, in the spirit of these lost lives here in Buffalo, New York.
"Not one more human being should be taken from this Earth because of white supremacy. … Something has to be done."
Crump adds they are imploring President Joe Biden to use whatever influence he has to urge the nation to pass this bill. The President will be in Buffalo on Wednesday with the First Lady, Jill Biden, to pay respect to the families that lost their loved ones in Saturday's shooting.
