A ‘hero’ security guard, a former fire official’s mother and a teacher were among the 10 people killed at a New York grocery store Saturday

Thirteen people were shot – 10 fatally – at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket Saturday in a massacre authorities believe was racially motivated.

Eleven of the victims were Black and two were White, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Saturday.

The victims range in age from 20 to 86, police said. Among them were a former police officer who tried to stop the gunman, the octogenarian mother of the city’s former fire commissioner and a long-term substitute teacher.

Buffalo police identified all of the victims late Sunday:

According to Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, the suspected shooter – an 18-year-old White man – traveled hours to target the Tops Supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Investigators are also reviewing a purported manifesto posted online Saturday in connection with the shooting probe, two federal law enforcement officials told CNN. The manifesto’s author describes himself as a fascist, a White supremacist and an anti-Semite.

While authorities identified the victims, details about who they were and the lives they lived have just started to emerge.

Here’s what we know about them.

Aaron Salter

The mayor identified the “hero” security guard who engaged the suspect but was fatally shot as Aaron Salter, a former Buffalo police lieutenant.

Salter was well-respected throughout the police department, Brown told CNN’s “New Day Weekend,” and had worked at the supermarket for several years after retiring.

Salter “is a hero who tried to protect people in the store, tried to save lives and in the process, lost his own life,” Brown said.

The supermarket’s security guard “fired multiple shots at the suspect” when he entered the store, Gramaglia previously said, but the suspect was wearing tactical gear that protected him from the guard’s gunfire.

Ruth Whitfield

Brown identified one of the victims to CNN as 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield.

Brown saw the former commissioner soon after the shooting walking on Jefferson Avenue, the road outside the supermarket, he told worshipers at the True Bethel Baptist Church on Sunday. The mayor assumed Whitfield was there to lend a hand and asked if he was there to help.

“He said, ‘Yes, mayor. But I’m here because I’m looking for my mother,’” Brown said.

Ruth Whitfield was visiting the former commissioner’s father in the nursing home, as she did each day, he told the mayor, and she stopped at the supermarket to buy some groceries.

“We’ve been calling her and she’s not answering the cellphone. And her car is still in the parking lot. And I’m afraid that she’s one of the victims of this shooting,” Brown recalled Garnell Whitfield saying.

His fears were later confirmed, Brown said.

Speaking at the same event, Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “We must do something about this.”

“I thought I was strong,” she said, “but hearing the mayor tell the story of our commissioner who’s dedicated his life to saving lives and loses his mother over an act of racism and White supremacy in this community – now I’m angry, my friends.”

Pearl Young

Pearl Young, 77, was a substitute teacher and a “true pillar in the community,” her family said in a statement.

“Pearl was a long-term substitute teacher with the Buffalo Public School District and recently worked at Emerson School of Hospitality,” according to the statement obtained by CNN.

“If there is one consolation that we can take from this tragedy is that we know that mom is up in heaven with our dad (her Ollie) and dancing and shouting with our heavenly father,” the statement read.

CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian contributed to this report.

Source: www.cnn.com