One of the slain victims of Buffalo’s hate-fueled rampage was picking up a special surprise birthday cake for his son when he was killed, grieving relatives said Monday.
Andre Mackniel, 53, was among the 10 black people killed at a Tops Friendly Market when alleged white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, opened fire there Saturday afternoon.
“[Andre] never came out with the cake,” said Mackniel’s cousin, Clarissa Alston-McCutcheon, adding that such a kind gift gesture wasn’t uncommon for him. “Just a loving and caring guy. Loved family. Was always there for his family.”
Another cousin, Jahon Smith, told the Washington Post that the slain man was a loving father and grandfather.
“This is a very hard time for the family,” Smith said. “I hope justice is served.”
Tracey Maciulewicz, who identified herself on Facebook as Mackniel’s fiancée, wrote that it was their son’s birthday Saturday.
“Today my baby was born but today my soul mate was taken. How do I tell my son his daddy’s not coming home? How do I as a mother make it ok? Someone please tell me because I really don’t know,” she wrote, according to the Washington Post.
More coverage on the Buffalo supermarket shooting
- FBI interviews parents of alleged Buffalo supermarket shooter Payton Gendron
- Payton Gendron wore hazmat suit to school, was hospitalized after threatening classmates
- Payton Gendron allegedly left ammo, rifle at friend’s a day before Buffalo massacre
The slaughter also claimed victims such as a church deacon and hero supermarket security guard.
Heyward Patterson, a 67-year-old retired McDonald’s manager, perished in the attack. The Buffalo man went to the supermarket to take home a client who had been shopping there, his wife told The Post on Monday.
“He was a loving father, and he was a community person, friendly,” said grieving widow Tirzah Patterson, 53. “He had a heart of gold. That’s the kind of person he was.”
Her husband, a deacon at the local State Tabernacle Church of God, regularly went to the supermarket to help residents in the community and got tips or gas money for his efforts, Tirzah said.
“He did that every day, he took time out to do that every day,” she said. “He had a heart for the people.”
The couple got married in 2009 after meeting at church, Tirzah said. He is survived by two daughters from a previous relationship, as well as a 12-year-old son with Tirzah, she said.
Referring to the couple’s son, Jaques, she said, “He’s doing the best he can do.
“He’s just sad.”
Patterson’s daughters are “heartbroken as well,” Tirzah said.
Another victim, Geraldine Talley, 62, was doing her grocery shopping with her fiancé when she was fatally shot, her niece Lakesha Chapman told CNN.
“She’s sweet, sweet, you know, the life of the party,” Chapman told the network. “She was the person who always put our family reunion together, she was an avid baker … mother of two beautiful children.”
Talley was simply “Auntie Gerri” to Chapman, who lives in Atlanta but traveled to Buffalo to be with relatives after the mass shooting.
Chapman said Talley’s family didn’t learn she had died in the attack until five hours later. The victim was at the front of the supermarket when the gunfire started, while her fiancé had gone to grab orange juice, Chapman said.
“We’re outraged,” Chapman said. “This is not, obviously, the first racially triggered attack in America. However, it is the first that hits our home.”
Talley’s death has left behind the “most numbing feeling ever,” Chapman said.
“She was shopping, and this man comes out of his neighborhood to attack because of her skin color, because of her zip code, you know, because it was predominantly black,” Chapman had told CNN on Sunday. “She was innocent. And it’s — there’s no words to describe it.”
Also killed in the shooting was Margus Morrison, 52, a father of three, the mother of his children told WKBW.
The 86-year-old mother of Buffalo’s former fire commissioner was murdered in the massacre also, as was the 77-year-old head of a local food pantry.
Three other people were wounded in the attack.
In all, 11 of the victims were black while two were white, authorities said.
“You don’t expect this when your mother goes grocery shopping,” said Pamela Pritchett, whose mother, Pearl Young, 77, was among the dead.
Ruth Whitfield, the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, was also shopping at the supermarket when she was gunned down, allegedly by Gendron — a self-proclaimed white supremacist who posted a 180-page manifesto before the attack.
“Yesterday she was leaving the nursing home, stopped at the store around the corner when this happened,” Garnell Whitfield told The Post on Sunday.
With Post Wires
