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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Graig Graziosi

Buffalo shooting victim killed while picking up cake for grandson’s birthday

Getty Images

The 10 individuals killed by a white supremacist during a mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo have been identified, including Andre Mackniel, who was picking up a cake for his grandson’s birthday.

Mr Mackneil had traveled 120 miles from his home to be present for his grandson’s birthday when he was targetted by a white supremacist mass shooter at the grocery store.

He had hoped the cake would be a surprise for his grandson, but he and nine others never walked out of the grocery store.

Here are the 10 people killed on Saturday afternoon: Roberta Drury, Margus Morrison, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, Ruth Whitfield and Mr Mackniel.

Three other people were injured in the shooting.

On Saturday, a man with firearms walked into a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and began shooting people. The grocery store was in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

The shooter also left a manifesto, which outlined his thinking and was full of increasingly more mainstream conservative ideology, like an emphasis on the so-called "great replacement theory”.

Peyton Gendron, 18, was arrested at the scene of the shooting and has pleaded not guilty after being charged with first-degree murder.

Last year police were reportedly tipped off to a shooting threat allegedly made by Mr Gendron.

The victims of the shooting were an assortment of normal people simply trying to finish a chore or do their jobs.

According to The Washington Post, Ms Young was a volunteer at her church food pantry. Ms Whitfield had just left the nursing home where she was caring for her husband. Ms Massey was considered the "glue" of her family by her siblings. Mr Patterson was a church deacon, Ms Chaney a grandmother and cancer survivor. Ms Drury was only 32.

According to police, Mr Gendron initially planned to continue his shooting outside the supermarket.

“It appeared that his plans were to drive out of here and continue driving down Jefferson Avenue looking to shoot more Black people as he could and possibly go to another store location,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Police claim Mr Gendron traveled to Buffalo because it had the highest population of Black individuals within his vicinity.

Mr Gramaglia said that the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.

“The evidence we uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime,” he said. “It will be prosecuted as a hate crime. This is someone who has hate in their heart, soul and mind.”

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