Who is Christopher Braden? Payton Gendron APOLOGIZED to survivor because he was White
The Buffalo supermarket manager recalled how shooter Payton Gendron lowered his weapon and apologized for hitting him after realizing he was White. Christopher Braden, a 55-year-old father-of-two, raced to the front of the Tops Friendly grocery store when Gendron opened fire. Being hit in the leg by a bullet, he tried to crawl between two registers to hide. However, Gendron, 18, followed him and aimed his semi-automatic rifle at him.
Braden is now in a hospital recovering from his wounds. His friend and neighbor, Sue Trala, told the Daily Mail, "The guy could have literally shot him dead – but he didn't. Christopher is trying to put on a brave face and make light of it but he's probably going to have survivor's guilt for the rest of his life – just because he's white."
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Braden is now in the hospital with a shattered tibia. "He's coherent but he's had major surgery on his left leg and he's going to have at least two more surgeries," Sue said. "The bullet went in and came out, leaving a pretty big hole. They think it was a hollow point."
"From what he's said, he heard the shots and ran up to the front of the store. He saw the guard getting shot right in front of him but he didn't even realize he had been hit in the leg," said Sue. "It was only when he was laying on the ground between the registers that he realized he had been shot. He looks up and sees the shooter pointing his gun at him but then he just says sorry."
"It's because he was white – there is literally no other explanation. The kid knew what he was doing, he was well trained, but he took the decision not to shoot. I blame all those stupid war games they play," she added.
Who is Christopher Braden?
Braden lives in a suburb of Buffalo, just 20 minutes from where the bloodshed took place. He is an assistant manager for the New York grocery chain. Sue said that he transferred from another location to the Jefferson Avenue store only a couple of weeks back. He has attended Maryvale Senior High School, his Facebook profile reveals. "He has two boys, he's a great neighbor. We have a glass of wine, we snow blow each other's homes in the winter. It could not have happened to a nicer guy," she said.
On Saturday, May 14, ten people were shot dead and three others wounded in a “racially motivated” mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket when Gendron opened fire. The 18-year-old drove from 'hours away' in Conklin, New York, to the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue. The shooting took place in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Eleven of the victims were Black and two of them were White. Besides Braden, Jennifer Warrington, 50, and Zaire Goodman, 20, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Both of them have already been released from medical care.
Gendron made a “reconnaissance” trip to the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo a day before he gunned down 10 people there, the city’s police commissioner reportedly said. “We know he did some reconnaissance on the area and in the store,” Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said during a press conference with Gov Kathy Hochul and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. “He was in the Buffalo area. He was right in this area the day before,” he added.
Gendron is reportedly believed to have posted a white supremacist manifesto, outlining his step-by-step plan. Officials revealed that Payton Gendron claimed in a 180-page diatribe that he was 'radicalized' on the internet while he was bored during the early pandemic days, not by people he has personally met. The self-described white supremacist and anti-Semite apparently learned through his "research" that low white birth rates around the world was a "crisis" that "will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people." In one section of the manifesto, Gendron detailed his step-by-step plans for the day of the shooting. He also wrote about the corned beef hash he would eat for breakfast. He planned how he would drive to the supermarket, wear his body armor and carry his gun. He also wrote about live streaming the attack.
Gendron reportedly began planning the attack in January. He chose the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo because “it has the highest black population percentage” by Zip code, and also because it was not very far away from his Southern Tier home. Reportedly, the Buffalo massacre is the latest in a wave of mass shootings that were inspired by the 'Great Replacement theory' — a racist theory popular among white supremacists and the far-right.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said that officials are considering charging Gendron with domestic terrorism. "We're looking at potentially multiple additional charges to be filed," Flynn told Fox News. "We are looking at domestic terrorism charges, we are looking at hate crime charges, there's actually a charge in New York State called domestic terrorism motivated by hate. So, that charge right there encompasses the actual terrorism and the hate charge together, all in one charge." Gendron has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, and is being held without bail.