BUFFALO, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – An Auburn man is one of the 10 people killed in Saturday’s shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, which is being investigated as a racially motivated hate crime.
53-year-old Andre Mackniel of Auburn was listed as one of the victims in a news release shared by the Buffalo Police Department on Sunday evening.
A person speaking on behalf of Mackniel’s wife told NewsChannel 9, he was at Tops to buy birthday cake for his son who had just recently turned 3-years-old. Mackniel was inside the grocery store when he was killed.
Mackniel is described as a loving and caring father, husband, brother, uncle, friend and community advocate.
Mackniel is one of two Central New Yorkers killed in the tragedy. 32-year-old Roberta Drury of Cicero was shot and killed as she was exiting the grocery store.
Drury, the youngest victim, attended Cicero-North Syracuse High School and moved to Buffalo in 2010 to care for her brother diagnosed with leukemia, his family and local restaurant.