Dominique Calhoun had just pulled into the parking lot of a Tops supermarket and was about to treat her two daughters to ice cream when she suddenly saw people running out of the store screaming.
By the time she left, 13 people had been shot, 10 of them dead, after an 18-year-old white gunman opened fire in what police described as a discriminatory attack. race.
“It really could have been me,” Ms. Calhoun said. “I was just shocked. I’ve never had something like this happen so close to home.”
Ken Stephens, 68, a member of a local anti-violence group, described a macabre scene. “I come here, and bodies are everywhere,” he said.
News of the shooting spread quickly throughout the city. Marilyn Hanson, 60, ran to Tops to make sure her daughter, who lived nearby, was not among the victims; she was safe.
Both Mrs. Hanson and her daughter shop at the store regularly.
“My daughter was scared because it could have been me in that store,” Ms. Hanson said, adding: “If a black man did this, he would die too,” referring to the fact that The shooter surrendered and was taken into custody.
Daniel Love, 24, was in the Love Barber Shop near the supermarket with his wife when he heard the noise, he said. His wife was from Iraq and immediately recognized the gunshots. He told her to come down, he said. He eventually ran to the parking lot and saw the lifeless body of someone he knew.
Ulysees O. Wingo Sr., a member of the Buffalo Common Council that represents a county bordering where the shooting took place, said he also knows a number of victims. As he spoke, onlookers gathered at the venue, with about 100 people standing along a side street. Yellow police tape surrounded the building surrounding the store, and at least two dozen police officers, along with several vehicles, guarded the perimeter.
“This is the largest mass shooting to date in the city of Buffalo,” Wingo said. “I don’t think anyone here in Buffalo would think something like this could happen, would happen.”
Mr. Wingo said that most of the shoppers at Tops supermarket were Black, a reflection of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Dorothy Simmons, 64, usually spends part of her Saturdays at Tops, grocery shopping to prepare for Sunday dinner. “That’s what we do in this community,” said Ms. Simmons, who has lived in East Buffalo all her life. On Saturday this week, Ms. Simmons was working in Amherst when she heard the news. She cried, she said. “This is our store – this is our store,” Ms. Simmons said.
Simmons, who is black, said the fact that the gunman was able to surrender shows the difference.
“If it was my son, he would never have surrendered. We never had a chance to surrender,” Ms. Simmons said. “It never will be.”
Dan Higgins contributed reporting from Buffalo, New York.
