Political Quotes

“I vividly remember the minutes, hours, and days after the shooting. As it occurred, I was with my family out of town when I received a call from Zeneta Everhart, then my director of diversity, equity, and inclusion in my New York State Senate office, who is now president pro tempore of the Buffalo Common Council, representing the Masten District. She herself had just received the most awful phone call any parent can imagine. Her only child, Zaire, an employee at Tops, called her screaming and crying. 'Mom, Mom, I have been shot.' Zaire had been doing what any parent would want their child to be doing: He was helping an elderly customer load her groceries into her car. That is when the first shots were fired in the parking lot. Zaire was shot and went to the ground, unable to get himself up, and in that moment, finding the courage and strength in being able to remove himself from the situation and run for help. Zaire was the only Black person shot that day who survived. By the grace of God he survived. He had been hit in the neck and the shoulder with a hollow point bullet shot by an AR-15 rifle.”