Photos: Police, crowds gather at scene of Tops mass killing

Ten people were gunned down at a Buffalo supermarket Saturday in a horrifying mass shooting that officials were quick to label as "pure evil" and racially motivated. The shooting stunned a community basking in a warm May afternoon, with shoppers filling the Tops in a predominantly Black neighborhood at 1275 Jefferson Ave. 

Described by Buffalo Police Chief Joseph Gramaglia as "a hero in our eyes," Aaron Salter is credited with confronting and shooting the assailant at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue before being shot to death on Saturday.

Holding vigil Saturday night outside the Tops supermarket where his 86-year-old mother was one of the 10 people murdered hours earlier in the day, retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield found light and joy in the life Ruth Whitfield lived.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the Justice Department "is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism."

The mass murder in Buffalo's African-American community – and the 18-year-old accused of committing it – quickly came to be seen as something even larger than an unprecedented Buffalo tragedy.

"We are shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Tops Markets said after a shooting at its Jefferson Avenue supermarket on Saturday afternoon left 10 people dead and three wounded.

"This is pure evil, a racially motivated hate crime," said John Garcia, the Erie County Sheriff, citing certain pieces of evidence that he chose not to elaborate upon.  

"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 at his church Sunday, encouraging them to grieve in a healthy way.