Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a customer service lead at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, had just finished ringing up a customer Saturday when she heard gunshots coming from outside the store.
Within seconds the front sliding doors opened, and the gunfire moved inside as the store’s security guard pulled out his weapon and returned fire. Harris Stanfield tried to grab her daughter from her, cashier supervisor Yahnia Brown-McReynolds, but lost her grip. Thinking her daughter de ella was following behind her, she then dashed toward the back of the store to escape.
Brown-McReynolds, a new mother to a 7-week-old girl, instead ducked behind her register. She stayed crouched down with her eyes closed until the gunfire stopped, she said in an interview Tuesday.
The shooting, which left 10 people dead three wounded, has shaken the tight-knit group of employees. But some, like cashier Ashley Marks, are determined to return to work so they can continue serving a community that fought hard to get their own grocery store.
The suspect, Payton Gendron, was dressed in tactical gear when he allegedly opened fire in the store’s parking lot around 2:30 pm Saturday, fatally shooting three people and wounding an employee before entering the store and continuing his rampage.
Among those killed was security guard Aaron Salter, Jr., who has been hailed a hero for trying to stop the suspect. The wounded include employee Zaire Goodman, who was shot in the neck while helping an elderly customer load groceries in her car.
Police said the suspect, who is from Conklin, New York, drove hours to Buffalo to carry out his attack. He was arraigned Saturday evening on first-degree murder charges after being arrested at the scene without incident. I pleaded not guilty.
A document posted to Google Docs on Thursday night said he chose Buffalo because the city has the most Black residents and it was in its vicinity. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the Justice Department is investigating the shooting as a “hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
Leonard Lane, 62, a Buffalo native, said the shooting was more than just an attack on a grocery store, describing it as the “anchor” of the community.
Henry Taylor, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Buffalo, said it took years to bring a Tops to the Masten Park neighborhood of Buffalo, which has limited access to grocery stores selling fresh goods at an affordable price. I have noted that many say still more stores are needed to serve the community.
If Tops doesn’t reopen, Taylor said, Black residents would have to leave their neighborhoods to acquire fresh produce, a significant hardship for the 40 percent of residents who do not own cars.
Harris Stanfield, who started working for Tops in December, said her job there was her way of giving back to her neighborhood.
“I’m usually a part of a lot of the community organizations,” she said. “This is my way of still giving some community service. Being here in the community and helping people and loving people is just what I love to do.”
Marks, who began working at the store eight months ago, said it was her “second home away from home.”
“We’re not just coworkers. We are family,” she said.
Employees ran for their lives, some had to hide
Harris Stanfield said she knew something was off Saturday afternoon before the gunfire started.
“My stress points started hurting. My neck was hurting to the point where I could barely touch it. It was so sensitive,” she recalled. “As it got worse, I’m turning around to tell my daughter that I’m in pain and I’m not sure what’s going on, maybe I should go and sit down or something. But I didn’t get to tell her anything because we heard gunshots.”
She said everyone in the front of the store paused. When they saw Salter, the security guard, back up and start shooting, “it alerted us to run.”
Thinking her daughter was behind her, Harris Stanfield fled toward the back of the store. In the midst of the chaos, she was knocked to the ground and lost her shoes.
“I was laying on the floor in aisle 12. I thought it was going to be the end there,” she said. “I’m not sure how I got myself up off the floor or what got me up. But I know I’m running again. … I hit the grocery doors. I remember hitting the doors and feeling a little relief.”
That quickly turned to fear when Harris Stanfield realized her daughter was not behind her.
“I just collapsed in somebody’s driveway because I had no idea where my daughter was,” she said, adding: “You could hear the gunshots getting closer. Every couple of moments.”
In a panic, Brown-McReynolds said she hid behind her register.
“He walked past me twice. He didn’t see me. If he had looked down, I would have been gone,” she said.
Brown-McReynolds, 20, who had returned to work earlier that week from maternity leave, said she realized how close she was to the suspect after she watched a video he live-streamed of Saturday’s massacre. The video was streamed on Twitch and was taken down after less than two minutes, the company has said.
Brown-McReynolds, who started working for Tops a little more than a year ago, said watching the video made her “a little bit more uneasy” because she “didn’t know he was that close.”
Marks, 31, had clocked out around 12:30 pm, two hours before the shooting began. The cashier said she usually stays longer on the weekend but she had to get her second job from her.
If it wasn’t for that job, she said she fears she would have “been a victim.”
After also watching the video, she said she realized the suspect “came down my register.”
‘We’re going to stand stronger’
Marks said she is still trying to heal from what happened. On Tuesday afternoon she attended a group counseling session provided through Tops with her colleagues.
Tops has vowed to reopen the store, although no date has been given. Marks said she will be there.
“That’s our second home. And we all are family. We’re going to stand stronger,” she said. “We’re not going to let a coward take away our dignity and put fear into our hearts for doing what we love to do. And that’s serving our community.”
Harris Stanfield said her love for the community is what’s going to bring her back.
“I just don’t want hate and evil to win over love and compassion. This is our community. This is our only grocery store in the community. I don’t want this to be an excuse to take something away from our people, she said. “I feel like I have to come back here. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when I actually walk inside the building … but I know that I’ll be back.”
For Brown-McReynolds, the trauma from the situation is still weighing on her.
“Me personally, I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to feel when they open it. It might be hard.”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism