Ruth Whitfield

Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t just tout the Biden administration’s climate change initiatives during her visit to Buffalo Wednesday. She also once again met with the families of those killed in the racist mass shooting at Tops Market.

Among those testifying was former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, whose mother Ruth Whitfield was one of the 10 mostly Black people killed May 14 at an East Side Buffalo Tops supermarket.

On Saturday, following the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes said that Tops has committed to reopening and that she hopes it will open in the next few weeks.

Saturday’s funeral for the last of the victims of a gunman’s racist attack became a call for action and an emotional plea to end the hate and violence that has wracked the nation. See photos inside.

Ruth Whitfield will be laid to rest on Saturday, May 28. She was one of the victims of the May 14 mass shooting in Buffalo, but she’ll be remembered by her loved ones as a devoted and caring wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

The family of Ruth Whitfield, one of Saturday’s mass shooting victims, has retained a nationally-known civil rights attorney to represent them in future civil action. Ben Crump, who also represents the families of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in their respective cases, is leading a legal team that includes local attorneys Terry Connors and Ken Abbarno. They appeared in Buffalo Monday to discuss what investigators say was a racially-motivated hate crime.