Latest News
East Buffalo prepares for one year since mass shooting; it's reflected on Mother's Day
May 12, 2023
WGRZ | Keelin Berrian
For some people, it's hard to believe tragedy struck Buffalo a year ago. Others feel it just happened. As May 14 approaches, emotions are running high. On a day when community members should be celebrating their mothers, they instead are left with the scars of that day and the pain a gunman has caused.
A Year After Tragedy Gripped Buffalo, Its Black Community Waits For Promises to be Kept
May 11, 2023
Capital B | Christina Carrega
In the year since the racist massacre, residents tell Capital B that as long as there’s only one supermarket in Cold Springs, that location will always be a target for another white supremacist to attack. Residents had also hoped that once their food insecurities made national and international headlines, more would have been done to revamp, revive, and rehabilitate the community. They are still waiting.
A year after Tops massacre spotlighted Buffalo's food gap: Where do we stand?
May 11, 2023
Buffalo News | Janet Gramza
The mass shooting at the East Side Tops Markets last May immediately spotlighted the scarcity of fresh grocery options for residents in predominantly Black communities in Buffalo. Decades of disinvestment meant the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood had only one major supermarket – and the massacre closed it for months.
Buffalo, What's Next? | Producers’ Picks
Jan 13, 2023
WBFO
In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Jerome Wright, NYS HALT Solitary campaign on a NYS study that shows disproportionately harsh discipline of people of color in prisons, Rev. Denise Walden Glenn and Tyrell Ford from VOICE Buffalo on criminal justice and re-entry issues
Effort to get souls to the polls as early voting nears its end
Nov 6, 2022
WGRZ | Rob Hackford
It was a party other than Republican and Democrat and one you won't see on your ballot this election season, but rather a political party held to try and raise election awareness at the Delavan Grider Community Center. The goal of Saturday's 'Souls to the Polls' event was to engage voters in East Buffalo to try and get higher voter turnout than a typical midterm election.
Daniel's Law is reimagining the response to mental health crises
Sep 20, 2022
WKBW | Sydni Eure
There is a push to change how police around the state are responding to mental health crises. Advocates for this change held a town hall at the Johnnie B. Willey Pavilion to honor the life of Daniel Prude, who died at the hands of police when they violently arrested him in March 2020.
We are not broken; we are bruised': How communities move forward after mass shootings
Jul 19, 2022
KGUN | Matt Pearl
On the east side of Buffalo, N.Y., to live means to clean, work, and wait for the bus amidst reminders of horrific violence. “Every day, you see people out here crying and stuff," said Benjamin Foster as he dropped his stepson at the school bus.
ONE MONTH LATER: Standing strong amid grief, family of Jefferson 10 victim wants conversations about race to continue
Jun 14, 2022
WKBW | Pheben Kassahun
It was one month ago, 52-year-old Margus Morrison's family spoke with 7 News, just two days after he was tragically killed, along with 9 others, at Tops on May 14. Morrison was known for having a contagious laugh and energy that could be felt a mile away. His brother, Frederick, and their pastor shared what it has been like moving forward and the change they hope to see.
March For Our Lives: The Blackest Moments From America Rallying Against Gun Violence
Jun 12, 2022
NewsOne Staff
Still unnerved by the deadly mass shootings in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and at a school in Uvalde, Texas, in particular, what seemed like millions of people this weekend took to America’s streets as part of the March For Our Lives protests that sprinkled the country in an effort to compel Congress to finally take decisive steps toward real gun control.
Another Voice: Bail reform rollbacks are an attack on communities of color
Jun 9, 2022
Buffalo News | Tyrell Ford
Three years ago, advocates fought to reform the racist and two-tiered cash bail system in New York. At the time, the unfair bail laws were wreaking havoc, particularly on communities of color, allowing a system where those accused of crimes who had money could return home with family to await their day in court, while those who could not afford bail languished behind bars, sometimes for years.
Buffalo’s Budget – More for Police: When will Buffalo produce a budget that sheds the guides of systemic racism and invest in those things that the community has been begging for?
May 27, 2022
The Challenger News | Myles Carter
Nearly 40 people gathered on the steps of City Hall to speak out against the proposed 2022-2023 budget for the City of Buffalo. Deacon Jerome Wright, Co-Director of the #HALTsolitary Campaign and First Vice Chair of VOICE Buffalo declared: “We don’t need BolaWraps. We don’t need ShotSpotter. We don’t need anything but resources poured back into our community so that we can live the way everybody else in this country lives.”
America, blood is on your hands
May 27, 2022
Baptist News | Jamar A. Boyd II
While in Buffalo, N.Y., observing, engaging and conversing with residents, organizers and pastors, the evidence was undeniable. The Main Street divide, disparaging poverty, ravaging despair, food desert all on the East Side and Black folks left to grapple with an act of domestic terrorism and compacted communal trauma.
After the shock fades, fear rises in the aftermath of Buffalo shooting
May 20, 2022
The Washington Post | Clyde McGrady
Those targeted by a gunman’s bullets aren’t the only victims of terror. It psychologically maims the people who can most easily envision themselves among the slain. After the bodies are carried away and interred, fear is what remains. It replaces trust with suspicion, patience with testiness. Things that were once routine require arduous effort to accomplish.
Calls for change after peaceful arrest of Buffalo mass shooting suspect
May 20, 2022
Spectrum News | Viktoria Hallikaar
Police say when they got on scene, he put a gun to his own head, but they talked him down and took him into custody. “They see a Black man and they're fearful for their life. They see a white man with an automatic weapon who just killed people and there’s no fear whatsoever," said Deacon Jerome Wright, the vice chair for VOICE Buffalo. "What is that? Racism, my sister. That is racism.”
Residents demand reinvestment in Jefferson Avenue
May 20, 2022
WKBW | Eileen Buckley
Residents who live around the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood in Buffalo say it offers a rich history and deserves a new wave of investment from the city. But they say the neighborhood has fallen victim to racial inequity. Voice Buffalo members speaking out Friday saying there must be an end to racial disparities, white supremacy, and institutional racism.
After the Buffalo slayings, parents struggle through talks with their children
May 19, 2022
NPR | Alana Wise
The mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store that police say was committed by an 18-year-old man radicalized by white supremacist ideology has left the western New York city torn and searching for answers. For many parents, confronting the ideology espoused by the murder suspect means having difficult conversations with their children about the realities of violence and racism in the United States.
Buffalo mourns as details emerge about gunman’s plans for second attack
May 16, 2022
PBS | Cat Wise
Federal authorities are investigating the massacre in Buffalo as a potential hate crime. Law enforcement officials also reported Monday that the accused gunman had planned to continue his shooting spree at another location if he had escaped. That news came as communities in Buffalo mourned the losses from an attack that claimed 10 lives. All were black. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports.
Buffalo's Black community stunned after being visited by 'evil'
May 16, 2022
Reuters | Jenna Zucker
The Tops Friendly Market chosen by the white gunman to launch his deadly racist attack on Saturday served as an anchor of sorts for the Black community along Buffalo’s Jefferson Avenue, one of the few places where residents could buy groceries. Now even that modest sanctuary no longer feels safe to many Black people in Buffalo, which takes pride in its nickname “the City of Good Neighbours.”
Buffalo grocery store shooter targeted the Black neighborhood, officials say
May 14, 2022
CNBC
The white 18-year-old who shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket had researched the local demographics and drove to the area a day in advance to conduct reconnaissance with the intent of killing as many Black people as possible, officials said Sunday. The racially motivated attack came a year after the gunman was taken to a hospital by State Police after making threats involving his high school, according to authorities.
VOICE Buffalo is trying to engage and change the city by finding solutions through discussion
May 7, 2022
WGRZ | Rob Hackford
When the Kensington Expressway was built there was little concern about the impact it would have on the people living on the east side of Buffalo, a predominantly African-American neighborhood. Its construction created an equity issue, which on Friday state and local leaders pledged would be righted. A $1 billion investment was announced to cover a portion of the roadway but when weighing equity in the City of Buffalo, the 33 is far from the only issue.