Early Saturday morning, as she helped set up for the inaugural Buffalo Black Caucus at Canisius College, Zeneta Everhart couldn’t stop crying upon seeing a beautiful quilt that depicted the faces of the 10 people killed in the mass shooting at the Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue one year ago.
“I broke down,” said Everhart, the mother of shooting survivor Zaire Goodman. “And it’s because I’m just so grateful that I got to keep my kid. Those families can’t say that, so it was just so emotional seeing their faces up on that quilt.”
Zeneta Everhart, mother of Tops shooting survivor Zaire Goodman, stands for a portrait at Canisius College in Buffalo, May 13, 2023.
All 10 of those killed in the racist massacre were loved family members, ripped away by a white supremacist who had never met them. Several of them, including Celestine Chaney, Pearl Young, Geraldine Talley and Ruth Whitfield, were mothers, and, in some cases, grandmothers, the matriarchs who passed down wisdom, brought together loved ones and were the center of family gatherings. Another one of the victims, Margus Morrison, had plans to see his mother after doing some shopping at Tops that day.
People are also reading…
Buffalo News Chief Photographer Derek Gee had the day off on May 14. But when word started spreading that multiple people had been shot at a busy supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, Gee scrambled to the scene. He could see cars, flashing lights and police tape. He pulled over and made his first image with a telephoto lens from half a mile away of the horrific scene. For the next year, he continued to cover the story of the hate-fueled massacre that claimed 10 lives that day at Tops, documenting not only the shock and grief and anger, but the strength and courage and the resolve of victims’ family members and residents.
A cruel reality of the one-year remembrance of the worst mass shooting in Buffalo’s history, a day when several mothers were lost and many others were affected, is that it lands on Mother’s Day.
Mark Talley speaks during a press conference introducing his self-published book, “5/14 – The Day the Devil Came to Buffalo,” in front of Tops on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, May 8, 2023.
“This is going to be the first Mother’s Day without my mother,” said Mark Talley, son of Geraldine Talley.
“It’s very difficult,” said Garnell Whitfield Jr., son of Ruth Whitfield. “Mother’s Day will never be the same again, obviously. But at the same time, though she’s not physically here with us, she’s still here with us spiritually. So we’re very thankful for that.”
…
Read More: Tops victims’ family members speak of maternal bonds