He frequently preaches forgiveness, yet Darius Pridgen, pastor of one of the largest Black churches in Buffalo, said it's taken him months to consider forgiving the teenager who killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack at his local grocery store.
MORE: Former fire commissioner fighting white supremacy in wake of mother's death in Buffalo massacre
The church's food pantry, which distributes free groceries to needy residents weekly, met the uptick of east side citizens needing sustenance while the only supermarket within miles of their neighborhood was a crime scene and was closed for weeks after the shooting, the pastor said. The church's food truck set up shop near the Jefferson Avenue Tops store to feed residents free of charge for days, he said.
Retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, whose mother, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, was among those slain in the supermarket massacre, praised Pridgen and his congregation for the work they have done Following the mass shooting, Pridgen said his church upgraded its security, investing in surveillance equipment.
"All of us here are right now going, 'What do we do?'" Especially when we know we had a white supremacist who was scouting out churches," said Pridgen, a former U.S. Air Force contraband control investigator.On the day of the attack, Pridgen was at his teenage son's first staged play when Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called to tell him there had been a shooting at Tops.
Pridgen said every member of the common council condemned the Tops massacre and many white Buffalo residents followed suit.Alysha Webb/ABC News
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