BUFFALO, N.Y. — The gunman who killed 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the East Side of Buffalo on Saturday took more than lives, residents say.
"He took a lot away from this community other than the lives of these people," said Robin Truesdale, 57, who owns a small business near Tops Friendly Markets, where authorities said Payton Gendron, a white 18-year-old who lived 200 miles away in Conklin, New York, targeted Black shoppers in a racist rampage. "He took away also a much-needed resource ... a part of the economic development for this community."
Tops, which has closed indefinitely, is the only supermarket in the area. Though several groups have donated food and other goods to grieving families, people who were once able to walk to pick up groceries now have to rely on public transportation or other means — indefinitely — at a time when inflation is already at a 40-year high.
