Buffalo community continues to mourn shooting victims

Weeks after the white shooter who killed 10 Black people in Buffalo was indicted on federal charges, and the grocery store where the shooting took place reopened to the public, the community continues to recover.

It has been three months since the shooting, which the shooter said he carried out to try to prevent the elimination of the white race.

Two Solana Beach residents recently raised about $7,000 and visited Buffalo to offer their support to some of the local organizations, particularly as national news coverage has focused more on the shooting in Uvalde and other pressing events.

“The news goes on to the next place, and the next place and the next place,” said Tina Zucker, who lives in Solana Beach and has taken part in local efforts to support stricter gun safety laws. “But what we discovered being in Buffalo almost two months after the shooting was that the people there were left in the same place as when it first happened. I felt that it was really important that, as citizens of the world, we need to bear that in mind, and not move on so quickly. Or if we move on, to not forget and see how we can still support places like Uvalde or Buffalo.”

Her husband, Joe Zucker, said part of the reason they wanted to make the trip was to “help the people there and let them know people on the other side of the country have not forgotten them.”

“It doesn’t take a lot to make a difference,” he said.

They said they spoke with Mark Talley, whose mother Geraldine Talley was murdered in the May shooting. According to a Buffalo News article, he held a barbecue to provide food to people who were impacted by the tragedy and has been trying to find other ways to support the community.

“We went there to bring love, and these people were so kind and were so loving to us,” Tina Zucker said.