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'Fix the East Side up': Community member sounds off outside Gendron hearing on previous lack of support for East Buffalo

Local, national and international media members wait outside during Payton Gendron's hearing Thursday morning.
Thomas O'Neil-White
/
WBFO News
Local, national and international media members wait outside during Payton Gendron's hearing Thursday morning.

A few members of the public stood outside the Erie County Courthouse Thursday for the arraignment of Payton Gendron for the shooting at a Jefferson Avenue supermarket which left 10 dead and three wounded.

An East Buffalo woman, who asked her name and face not be used for fear of retaliation, said with national and international media attention on Buffalo’s East Side in the wake of the shooting, now is the perfect time to direct more money to help residents of the community.

“Now if you care, put that money into the city and stop acting like we all together with this unity kumbaya shit,” she said.

A righteous anger remains in the community, she said, not only with the shooting, but the feeling that once the cameras leave, so will the desire to uplift East Buffalo’s neighborhoods.

“I'm not getting ready to say Buffalo Love and Buffalo Strong when the whole city been tore up on the East Side for 40-50 years,” she said of the generations of disinvestment in the neighborhoods east of Main Street. “All this money get ready to come into Buffalo. Don't send it to no damn stadium. Don't send it to Canalside. Fix the city up. Fix the East Side up.”

Gendron has now been indicted on one count of first degree murder for the shooting. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 9. He has pleaded not guilty and remains held without bail.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Thomas moved to Western New York at the age of 14. A graduate of Buffalo State College, he majored in Communications Studies and was part of the sports staff for WBNY. When not following his beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats and Boston Red Sox, Thomas enjoys coaching youth basketball, reading Tolkien novels and seeing live music.
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