Moment of silence at Buffalo supermarket ahead of reopening from mass shooting
BUFFALO -- The Tops supermarket in Buffalo where ten people were shot and killed in May is set to reopen Friday morning, two months after the attack.
A moment of silence and prayer was held Thursday to honor the victims.
On the other side of a memorial to the victims of the Buffalo shooting, a renovated grocery store is ready for the parking lot fence to come down and customers to come back.
Inside, there is a memorial waterfall and windows with the names and photos of the ten lives lost -- all of them Black.
A grand jury Thursday issued hate crimes and firearms charges against the white suspect.
On behalf of Tops Friendly Markets, local pastor Darius Pridgen offered a prayer and moment of silence Thursday to honor the victims and their families.
"Although we have mixed emotions, one thing that we do know is that we are better together," he said.
The upstate New York community is still recovering, and residents are split over whether they'll shop there again.
"I'm not scared or worried, but just out of respect of it being sacred ground, so to speak, I'm not quite sure. I might just let a couple of days, a couple of months go by and see if I will go back in," Buffalo resident Titus Taggert told CBS2's Elijah Westbrook.
Nearly 400 people have signed a petition on Change.org demanding the Tops be torn down and a memorial park be built in its place, but there are also locals who support the reopening of the only grocery store of its size in their community.
"Excitement for this community. I think Tops is to be commended," Bishop Michael Badger said.
Badger and his wife, Pastor Joyce Badger, are leaders of a church three blocks away and know how crucial the reopening of the store is in what they're calling a food desert.
"See the community coming back together and Tops invested back into this community, it's just awesome," Joyce Badger said.
Over the last two months, many have had to rely on buses to stores in other neighborhoods or food giveaways.
"There's a lot of people around here who are walkers," Buffalo resident Veronica Hamphill-Nichols said. "It's not like we can get to another supermarket."
Not everyone is feeling so great about its reopening, however.
"I don't think it should open at all," one person said.
"What do you think should be put there? Do you think it should be torn down? What's your idea?" Westbrook asked.
"Torn down and become a memorial, I would say, for the families," the resident said.
Many who spoke to CBS2 say they will be there for the reopening Friday, unsure of how they'll feel but ready for the community transformation to begin.