VP Harris expected at last Buffalo shooting victim's funeral
The last of the victims of a gunman’s racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket will be laid to rest Saturday
The last of the victims of a gunman's racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket will be laid to rest Saturday.
Ruth Whitfield, at 86, is the oldest of the 10 people killed. Whitfield is expected to be eulogized by civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton at a service attended by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Whitfield was inside the Tops Friendly Market after visiting her husband of 68 years in a nursing home May 14 when a gunman identified by police as 18-year-old Payton Gendron opened fire.
Authorities said Gendron, who is white, targeted the store three hours from his home in Conklin because it is in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
In all, 13 people were shot in the attack which federal authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Three people survived.
Whitfield was the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. Her funeral will take place at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo.
Gendron is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail. His attorney has entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.