Buffalo supermarket shooting: What’s known about the victims

Vigils held after mass shooting in Buffalo

Police said Payton Gendron shot 11 Black people and two white people in a rampage at a Buffalo supermarket.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Ten people were shot and killed Saturday after an 18-year-old White gunman entered a Buffalo supermarket and opened fire, authorities said.

Authorities said the gunman shot, in total, 11 Black people and two White people Saturday in a rampage motivated by racial hatred that he broadcast live. The shooter, identified as Payton Gendron, had previously threatened a shooting at his high school last June, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Among the dead was security guard Aaron Salter — a retired Buffalo police officer — who fired multiple shots at Gendron. A bullet hit the gunman’s armor, but had no effect. Gendron then killed Salter, before hunting more victims.

Also killed was Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told churchgoers that he saw the former fire official at the shooting scene Saturday, looking for his mother.

"My mother had just gone to see my father, as she does every day, in the nursing home and stopped at the Tops to buy just a few groceries. And nobody has heard from her," Whitfield told the mayor then. She was confirmed as a victim later in the day, Brown said.

Katherine Massey, who had gone to the store to pick up some groceries, also was killed, according to the Buffalo News. The names of the rest of the victims hadn’t been released.

Many people are posting tributes to the victims online.

"Praying for and with our Buffalo community," the Buffalo Bills tweeted. "Our hearts are with the victims, their families and friends.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed.