January 1, Victim’s Family Member Says Gunman Did Not Act Alone

Garnell Whitfield Jr., the son of one of the victims killed in the recent shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, told lawmakers that the gunman “did not act alone.”

“We’re angry. We’re mad as hell. Because this should have never happened. We’re good citizens. Good people. We believe in God, we trust in God, but this wasn’t an act of God. This was an act of a person, and he did not act alone,” Whitfield said before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“His anger and hatred were metastasized like a cancer by people with big microphones in high places screaming that Black people were going to take away their jobs and opportunities,” he added.

Eleven of the 13 people shot by the gunman were black, including Whitfield’s 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield.

“Our lives are forever changed, forever damaged by an act of profound hate and evil, and nothing will ever take away the hurt, the pain, or the hole in our hearts,” Whitfield said.

“For her to be murdered, taken away from us by someone so full of hate, is impossible to understand and even harder to live with.”