WEBVTT - S2 E10: Lone Wolf 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.600 You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.160 production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.520 In the criminal justice System, landmark trials transcend the courtroom 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.360 to reshape the law. The brave men and women who 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.640 investigate and prosecute these cases are part of a select 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:26.440 group that is defined American history. These are their stories. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:37.000 May fourteenth, twenty twenty two, two thirty pm, Buffalo, New York. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.479 The hum of a Saturday afternoon at Top's Friendly Supermarket, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:50.200 shopping carts rolling across pavement, families moving through the aisles. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:55.920 Then screams, we are following reports of a mass shooting 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.840 at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Police say there 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:04.440 are are quote multiple victims, but other details are scarce 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.199 and there is still a large police presence on sceen. 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:14.720 Gunfire echoed through the store. Each shot ricocheted off tailand steel. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:20.639 Customers ducked behind shelves, workers pressed themselves flat against the floor. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.800 In less than five minutes, ten lives were gone, and 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.880 across the city's East side, words spread at lightning speed 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.720 phones rang as sirens wailed. What had begun as an 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:41.600 ordinary trip for groceries had become a community's darkest hour. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.400 When I first saw him shooting, he shot a woman, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.480 he shot a deacon, he shot another woman, and then 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.440 he went in the store and started shooting again. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:54.600 So I don't know who he was shooting at because 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.600 he shot at least eight eight people. 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.680 So he came feel safe in your own neighborhood. People 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:00.280 come over here. 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:01.720 What are we suits on shooting people? 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.040 This is what DULs. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.880 I got a call. Get out to LaGuardia Airport. There's 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.040 been a bombing. There was a thirty two foot crater 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:17.799 in front of what was left of the building. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:19.560 I was trying to figure out, am I dead? Am 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.320 I alive? Where am I? 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:22.839 I'm Aniseega Nicolazi. 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.200 That's why terrorism works. It doesn't care who you are. 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:31.960 From Wolf Entertainment and iHeart Podcasts, this is law and order, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:42.320 criminal justice system. Buffalo, New York, sits on the edge 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.120 of Lake Erie, where the water meets the city's skyline. 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:51.400 Its streets stretch outward into old steel towns and quiet neighborhoods. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.400 It's a place shaped by industry and weather, known for 0:02:55.520 --> 0:03:00.280 its resilience as much as for its long winters. But 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.240 beneath the surface, Buffalo is also a city marked by 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.360 deep divides between its west side and its east side, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.360 between privilege and poverty. It's also the place where Garnell 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:18.040 Whitfield grew up then served his community for over three decades. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.840 I was a Commissioner of Fire, an emergency management for 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.120 the city of Buffalo, and did thirty four years with 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:24.880 the fire Department. 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.520 Garnell knows the city like the back of his hand. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:33.080 On the east side sat a single supermarket known as Tops. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.160 It stood on Jefferson Avenue, on a street that used 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.760 to be a thriving corridor for black businesses, but has 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:45.840 since endured decades of disinvestment. It was a rare anchor 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:47.760 in a neighborhood long abandoned. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.160 Tops is the only market on the east side of Buffalo. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.920 It's a food desert where eighty ninety percent of people 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.040 of color live in Buffalo, New York. 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.560 For thousands of families. This carried meaning far greater than 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:03.760 it's square footage. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.560 It's a lifeline, yeah, I mean prescriptions whatever. It is 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.680 just a place that fellowship and meet. It's a place 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:12.920 of community. That's what it is, and it's in the 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:14.440 heart of the East side of Buffalo. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:17.960 It was a steady presence in a part of the 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.640 city where so much else had been stripped away. 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:23.760 There's a lot of things about Buffalo, and it's a 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.880 former steel town. That industry is no longer in existence, 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.880 and so Buffalo has suffered for years. Buffalo is a 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.240 very poor city. It is at this particular moment, I think, 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.320 one of the sixth poor city in America, the sixth 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.640 most racially divided city in America for city its size. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.360 It's one of the only cities in America of its 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.520 size that does not have a minority suburb. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.560 Those conditions weren't foreign to him. He'd known them since 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:54.440 he was a child. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.600 We've been in Buffalo my entire life. I remember being 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.400 very poor. My father, I think, made fifty dollars a 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:03.680 week working at one of the local stores. And we 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:05.840 lived in the projects. I mean, we grew up in 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.239 the projects. But my mom never let the projects grow 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:10.359 in us, you know what I'm saying. 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.080 At the center was his mother, Ruth. She was the 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.919 one who lifted the family up, refusing to let circumstances 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:20.320 to find them. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.880 She was very proud of her family. She was very proud, 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.640 even though sometimes maybe she shouldn't have because we weren't 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.159 all I know. I caused her some consternation, but she 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.680 loved her family. She was married to my dad for 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:35.800 sixty eight years. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.479 All truism shaped her life. She spent years caring for 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.360 the elderly, and even in her own retirement, she continued 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:45.880 to look after others. 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.680 Here's somebody who would bring strangers home, Somebody who would 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.839 visit the other people in the nursing home, no matter 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.360 what color they are. Somebody who was kind, somebody who 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.080 was loving, Somebody who believed in God and believed in 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.080 advocating for them least of these. That's who she was. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.640 By the spring of twenty twenty two, Ruth was eighty six. 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.480 That Mother's Day, Garnell decided to do something special. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.279 I had taken on a project of building her a 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:17.120 raised garden planter. She'd liked to grow fruits and vegetables 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.680 or whatever, and she had terrible back issues and could 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:22.520 not really tend to soil and bend over and do 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.480 that kind of thing anymore. So she could never buy 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.400 her anything. She'd had to buy it for herself. So 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.279 we had gotten used to giving her money. But I 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.960 wanted to do something more personal. This particular Mother's Day, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.000 so I decided to build her raised planter and give 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.279 her money. So I had taken that project on and 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.360 wasn't able to complete it for Mother's Day to weather 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:43.320 that hadn't go operated, and I had to travel and 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.839 other things. But I'm out here on May thirteenth, and 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.479 I spent the entire day with her. It was extremely 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.919 warm that day, and she sat out in the yard, 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.240 we talked, and we had a wonderful day. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.440 By late afternoon, the planter was in place, the soil leveled, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:03.240 and the work nearly finished. It was time to wrap up, so. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.560 I left her exactly a quarter to three on five 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.839 point thirteen. I said, I'm going to come back in 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:10.880 the morning and put some more dirt and raise the 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.400 level up even higher. You don't have to bend over 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.440 as much, and it's ready for planting. And she says 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:18.840 she was going to go get some seeds and we 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.560 were going to meet the next day. 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:25.640 The next morning, Garnell made good on his promise that 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:27.160 brought over dirt. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.880 I put it in, knocked on the door, she didn't answer. 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.640 She needed to wear hearing age, and half the time 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.640 didn't wear them, and I didn't know if she just 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.320 didn't hear me, or she was resting, because she did 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.720 not sleep much at all. She was waiting on a 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.760 nerve block injection for her back and was in dire pain. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.120 So I didn't want to disturb her, so I said, 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:47.800 I'll cut your at the nursing home. So I left. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:49.400 I never saw her again. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.760 The rest of that morning passed quietly. Garnell ran a 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.360 few errands with his wife. They were driving home when 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:00.000 the phone rang. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:03.520 My sister in law caught and said that something had 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.520 occurred at Tops. Had we heard? And I said no, 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.120 we hadn't heard. We came back home and tried to 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.880 find out what was going on. There was no news, 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:12.960 there was nothing on the TV. 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.040 He picked up the phone again, this time to call 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:17.559 his mother. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.320 So I called my mom just to check on her. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.440 I hadn't seen her that morning. She didn't answer. My 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.600 wife called her sister and she didn't answer. 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:33.280 The silence wasn't settling. The television soon broadcast the breaking news. 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.839 Eventually, maybe fifteen twenty minutes, ribbon started coming across the 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.280 bottom of the TV, not with any real specific information, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.400 but it's something that had occurred at Tops. 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.600 We're following the letters on that mass shooting in our country, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.840 reports so that eight people had been killed. Reports say 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.040 the gunman issued some type of manifesto, that the attack 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.840 appears to be targeted, not yet confirmed though by authorities. 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.640 With a new sense of urgent. See. Garnell was intent 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.480 on reaching his mom, and. 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.200 So I called my mom again and she didn't answer. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.240 And then I waited a few minutes, and I told 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:10.720 my wife. I said, I'm going to go check on 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:11.800 my mom. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.040 As he drove, his mind kept circling back to the 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.760 unanswered calls. He stopped by her house, the car wasn't there. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:23.520 He called again, still no answer. Something pulled him toward 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:25.280 Jefferson Avenue. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.920 I know all of those people that responded, FBI, atf 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.000 Buffalo Police, Fire, Erie County, all of those people I've 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.040 worked with down to the year, so I know them 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.439 all personally. I couldn't find my mother. I was hoping 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.040 that I knew where she was, and something led me 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.839 to go by Tops. So I just showed up over 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:44.520 there at Tops. 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.320 What he founded the market was mayhem. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.320 It was chaotic, it was a shooting, no definitive information, 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.040 There was no specifics or anything. There was a shooting. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.360 In a matter of hours, his calm morning had turned 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.480 to panic, and at the center of it all was 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.160 the rock of his community. 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.959 When the public had started to gather, when there were victims, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:09.800 I mean, it was tragic scene. 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:15.679 Every direction was noise and confusion. But his garnell edged closer, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.760 his focus narrowed. He was looking for something specific. 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.120 I decided to see if my mother's car was there. 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.320 I don't know why, but I started walking the perimeter, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.800 trying to ascertain whether, in fact I saw her car. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.440 They had it all roped off of the parking lot. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.400 The barricades blocked his view. He strained to see through 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.560 the maze of yellow tape and police. 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.480 As I approached the Jefferson Street side of the parking lot, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.600 I was able to just see just a faint, small 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.000 part of the hood of a black vehicle. And it 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.319 was in the handicaps spot, right up by the store, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.320 which is where my mother would have absolutely parked as 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.559 close as she could, and the handicaps having the back. 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.960 Issues in that His thoughts began to race as his 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:06.040 chest tightened. 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.600 I couldn't see the car. I got a detective. I 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.320 described the car to him, got a detective to go 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.520 into the scene and to identify the car, and that's 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.320 how I found out that she was there. 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:24.000 For Garnell. It was a moment suspended between hope and dread. 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:27.320 Was his mother among the victims? Had she made it 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.840 out alive? The only way to know was to keep searching. 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.120 As he looked for answers outside the store, the police 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.800 response continued to build. At the top of that chain 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.360 of command was the city's police commissioner. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.160 My name is Joe Grimalia. I retired at the end 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.200 of January of twenty twenty five. I was the commissioner 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.840 for almost three years. Before that, I was a deputy 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:56.319 commissioner and district chief. Before that, I was a homicide commander. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.200 That was a career Buffalo officer. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.800 He knows its officers, its streets, and it struggles. Service 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.720 ran through his family and for Joe, it had always 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:08.760 been more than a job. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.199 I like to say it's the family business. My father 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.080 was a New York State trooper, my uncles were local officers, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:16.840 my cousins. 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.520 It's deep in the family roots. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.679 I always idolized the profession and it was very singularly 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.040 tracked that that's what I wanted to do. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:30.040 But on the afternoon of May fourteenth, his experience and 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.040 leadership were about to be tested in new ways. When 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.600 the call first came in, he drove faster than he 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:37.640 ever had before. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.160 I don't live that far away, probably twelve to fifteen 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.120 minutes of normal driving. I think I got there in 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:45.120 about seven minutes. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:50.000 Dispatcher calls kept coming through his radio. With every update, 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.040 the numbers grew. 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.600 When I got Onseene, the gravity of the situation really 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:56.200 hit me. 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.200 By two thirty six that afternoon, when Joe arrived, the gunman, 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.400 an eighteen year old named Peyton Grendon, was already in handcuffs. 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.760 When the first call went out. We had three police 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.160 officers in that parking lot, and I think it was 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.880 about sixty four seconds from the time the nine to 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.320 one one call went out, and the fourth police officer 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.679 got into that parking lot just the mere seconds after that. 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.240 They were able to get him into custody, got him 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:27.960 in a car, and got him out of there very 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:28.720 very quickly. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.920 But even with a shooter apprehended, it wasn't clear if 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.719 the danger was over. The first priority was to eliminate 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:42.200 the possibility of a second shooter. Officers entered the store 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:46.640 and carefully walked his aisles, not knowing if another gunman 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.439 was waiting. Step by step, they moved in deeper. There 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:55.640 were frightened choppers crouched behind shelves. Then the scope of 0:13:55.679 --> 0:14:01.400 the horror revealed itself, one victim, then another. The numbers 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:06.360 continued to grow. Bodies lay motionless across the floor, some 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.560 gravely injured and others already gone. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.840 Our officers clearing the store once they were satisfied that 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.200 there was no other shooters, no other danger in the store. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.040 Then you start looking at victims and the firefighters are 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.760 going through, and it was very obvious that anyone else 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.160 that had been shot in the store was an obvious 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.360 fatal wound. The officer is as tough as this is. 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.280 They have to advance past the wounded, They have to 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.960 advance past everybody to make sure that there's nobody else 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.480 causing harm in the store. If you stop and you 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.240 try to tend to a victim, more people could end 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.200 up getting shot and end up suffering. So the officers, 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.400 as difficult as it was, they had to keep pushing 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.760 through until they cleared that store. And then you go 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:49.400 back and start tending to the victims. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.160 Firefighters stood by, ready to follow as soon as the 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.640 path was clear. Once police confirmed that the store was 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.840 saved to enter, firefighters served forward, turning their focus to 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:02.480 the wounded. 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.160 They ran into the store and two of the surviving 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:09.240 victims were inside the store. One of the surviving victims 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.880 was outside the store, and they actually used a shopping 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.640 cart to load the store manager into a shopping cart 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.400 and push that cart out and got them evacuated from 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.360 the store immediately and got him in an ambulance and 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:23.200 got him out of there. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.800 By the time Joe arrived, rescue efforts were already underway. 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:30.840 I was met by one of the command officers that 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.960 just was shaking his head and trying to give me 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.680 the rundown of what exactly was going on, And one 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.120 of our veteran, seasoned homicide detectives said, come on, let 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.200 me walk you through the scene. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.760 He passed bodies still lying in the parking lot. Everywhere 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:52.080 he looked were signs of panic and violence, frozen in place. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:58.640 And walking around the store. It's something you'll just never unsee. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.880 Every aisle showed signs of the devastation. As he walked through, 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.480 the horror light music filled the store. 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.480 The in store music system was still playing, and it 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:10.640 was early quiet in there. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:17.120 An uncomfortable reminder of an ordinary day shattered in an instant. 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:22.600 Shopping cards were overturned, shelves were left scattered, and officers, 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.200 some of them barely holding it together. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.680 As I was walking up, I remember some things very vividly, 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.120 and one of those was an officer that was just 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:37.840 completely overcome with emotion, and another officer was escorting him 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.320 out of the store and taking him away from the scene. 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.840 The scene was difficult even for seasoned officers. The obvious 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.680 violence was brutal, but there was also something else that 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:51.200 made this hit close to home. 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.400 One of the victims that we lost, Aaron Salter, was 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.960 a former Buffalo Police officer. He'd been retired for several years. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.920 He retired in two thousand eighteen, and there were numerous 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:03.960 officers on scene that knew him. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.879 Many officers knew the victims, some had worked alongside Aaron Salter. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.040 The images inside that store would not fait easily. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:20.440 Our peer team was contacted almost immediately to get members, 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:22.240 and they're an all volunteer peer team. 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:23.280 To look out for our. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:27.920 Members, Counselors waited in the parking lot, meeting officers as 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.080 they came out to ensure they were ready to keep going. 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.359 This is where I think police officers can sometimes be 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:37.560 looked at differently. But we've got a job to do, 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.919 and there's not to say that we're not human and 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.359 officers aren't going to go through the various stages of 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.639 emotion at the time, But you've got to maintain some 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.080 control and I had a job to do, so I 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.960 kind of had to snap myself into shape like every 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.399 other officer on scene there, and we had to start 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:57.119 working through that. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.919 Joan needed to focus. There was still a city to 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.600 comfort and keep under control. There was also the crime 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.639 scene to manage, and a public waiting desperately for answers. 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.520 A command post was set up across the street. The 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:17.400 mayor and the FBI arrived. Within an hour, Jefferson Avenue 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.400 had become the center of national attention. Reporters swarmed. Joe 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.600 had to carve out a space where investigators could focus 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.040 on what needed to be done as the outside world watched. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.119 There was a kind of a vacant parking lot across 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.800 the street from this location, and we established this as 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:36.919 our command post. 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:42.520 The crowd was swelling, the parking lot was sealed, tensions 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.040 were rising. That's when the two men finally came face 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:46.560 to face. 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.840 While I'm in that command post, the former Buffalo Fire 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:55.439 Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, he came walking up to me. I said, hey, Garnell, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.280 he's like Joe, He's like, can you tell me if 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:59.280 my mother's in the store. And that was like a 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.240 gut punch, like froze, and I said, Garnel, I don't know. 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.080 We don't have any of the identities of anybody that's 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.320 in the story yet, but I said, look, stay here 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.359 at the command bus, and as soon as I hear something, 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.040 I'll let you know, but stay here. Come to find 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.800 out that his mother was the oldest victim that was 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:15.760 inside the store. 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.679 For Garnell, the encounterset in motion of frantic search. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.480 I still didn't know whether she had been shot or 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.240 anything like that. So I talked to Joe Grimaudia. He 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.480 assigned a lieutenant to me. Because they had evacuated maybe 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.960 twenty five people from the store and taken them to 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.159 police headquarters to debrief them. They did not have a 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.960 list of names of those people, and so I went 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.080 about to businesses, trying to ascertain whether, in fact, my 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.480 mom was one of the persons who had been evacuated. 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.040 Hours passed without answers. 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.080 They hadn't locked the names of the people and had 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.200 made them available, so it was tough getting any information 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:57.600 from them. 0:19:57.920 --> 0:19:59.840 Garnell had to find another way. 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.440 I got another detective. I asked him to go in 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.399 and look and see if my mother was there. He 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.960 needed a description of her. I had not seen her 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.080 that morning, so I did not know what she had on, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.280 and I did not have a picture of her readily available. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.880 I didn't even think to look through my phone. So 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.359 I called the nursing home. I got them to send 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.760 me the video tape of the visitors from that morning. 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:28.200 I knew my mom had gone to the nursing home, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.080 and so I got them to send the video to me. 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.080 I gave that to the detective. 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:38.160 And then came the silence, the kind every first responder 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:39.040 knows too well. 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.480 When he didn't come back. I knew, you know what 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:44.919 I'm saying. I mean, I knew I've done this a 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.479 number of times myself, so I knew right away. And 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.240 so with something he passed to the commissioner and to 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.480 the others, people of the authority who were my peers. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.119 They gathered, and I had already set myself apart and 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:02.439 was grieving. I knew exactly what was going on, and 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.439 so they all came, Mayor and county exact and ology's people, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.040 they all came. But I already knew. I mean, I've 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.879 been on the other side this for a long time, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.199 so being on this side of it as a victim, 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:27.080 as someone looking for answers, was very different, I gotta say. 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.680 As Garneld Whitfield reeled from the news that his mother Ruth, 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.879 was among the victims, the shock was also settling over 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:44.320 the entire city. When the numbers were finally confirmed, the 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:46.760 scale of the loss was overwhelming. 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:49.280 Ten died, three survived. 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.520 It was a massacre carried out with strategic planning, then 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:59.400 broadcast live on the Internet as it unfolded. That choice 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.240 was delivered bread a way to spread terror beyond Buffalo. 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:08.080 As soon as law enforcement realized what was happening, the 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:12.480 stream was taken down, but by then the damage was done. 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:17.920 The images had already escaped into the world. The toll 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.280 weight heaviest on the community. It had so deliberately targeted. 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:28.000 Eleven of the victims were black and two were white. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.640 One of the victims that was shot was in the 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:36.200 pharmacy area and I guess was hit by a stray 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.320 round if you will, suffered a grazing wound and was 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.120 very fortunate. The other was the store manager. You had 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:47.399