A security guard killed in a gun exchange in an attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on Saturday has been identified as a selfless hero who laid down his life to save others.
“He went to fight. “He went in, he went for the gun, he fought,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said in an interview with retired Buffalo Police Officer Aaron Salter Jr. ABC News this week Sunday.
“He shot the individual, but because of the armor it had no effect on him and unfortunately the suspect fired in retaliation and died from his injuries. “Like I said, he’s a favorite member and we’re sure he saved his life yesterday,” Gramaglia said.
Solter served in the police force for 30 years before retiring and serving as a security guard at Tops Friendly Market. Daily Animal reported.
“Today was a shock,” said his son Aaron Salter III. “I’m sure he saved some lives today. He is a hero ”.
“He’s a real hero”, Gramaglia reiterated on Sunday in an interview. “We don’t know what he did. “More people would have died if not for his actions.”
The 55-year-old worker was working security when authorities said 18-year-old Peyton Gendron, armed with a machine gun and armor, accidentally started shooting people, first in the parking lot and then is inside. Thirteen people were killed, 10 of them died. Gramaglia said Gendron was arrested after being handed over to the scene.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said Saturday that the attack was a hate crime on an armed offender who turned white and aimed at people of color. The store was mostly in a black community and the killer went to where he went the day before for a few hours, Gramaglia said.
“He came here to inspect the place, to do a little bit of reconnaissance work, before committing his evil and heinous act,” he told ABC News.
The 86-year-old mother of a former Buffalo Fire Commissioner has been identified as another dead.
“My mother was a perfect mother,” former Buffalo News Commissioner Garnel Whitfield told Ruth Whitfield. “My mother was a mother of the helpless. It has been a blessing to all of us.”
Source: Huffpost
