BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Survivors of the Tops mass shooting sat down with 7 News reporter Yoselin Person to talk about the trauma they still face and how they are trying to move forward two years later.
Patrick Patterson is a survivor and still shows up to work at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue, the same place where he was almost killed.
"We went into the grocery backroom and I went halfway in and told them the door was right there and all they had to do was unlatch the hook and they could go out," Patterson said.
Despite that terror, Patterson says the tragedy did not stop him from going back to the place he calls home.
"A lot of my help came from scripture. We dispelled the racism because there's only one race and evil comes in all different sizes," he said. "I was able to help people fight through that."
Curt Baker also worked at the Tops on Buffalo's East Side. On May 14, he helped Patterson shelter people from the bullets.
"All you heard were the bullets ricocheting off the walls," Baker said.
Baker now works at the Tops on Elmwood Avenue in North Buffalo.
"Personally, I want to move past this situation," he said. "But I do appreciate how it brought our community together."
Grady Lewis witnessed the mass shooting from the Tops parking lot. The day before the shooting, Lewis spoke with the shooter, Payton Gendron, right outside the store. Lewis had no idea the person he spoke with had a motive.
"I was going to sit down in the parking lot but I decided to go across the street and I saw a guy shooting people," he said. "Throughout the day I started hearing he lived two hours away."
Lewis says he goes to counseling and journals to get by almost every day.
"I started writing and it helps me because now I have a little more insight on who he is," Lewis said. "I don't feel bad that I talked to him."
Other survivors like Fragrance Harris still have a hard time coping two years later.
"It may not have been the breath that I'm breathing but something died within me and I have to recover from that," she said. "It's like losing a limb or something. I don't need a reminder of a remembrance or a memorial. I'm not even acknowledged most of the time."
Survivors say they lean on each other, taking one day at a time and living in the moment.
"Sometimes it takes some sort of calamity, flood, or earthquake for us for and our humanity to come out and want to help others," Patterson said.
