Sunday 15 May 2022 02:40 PM Ex-cop is hailed a 'hero' after firing at Buffalo shooter 'multiple times' trends now
A former Buffalo police officer who died trying to take down a gunman is being hailed as a 'hero' by city officials.
Aaron Salter Jr, 55, had worked at the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo, New York for the past four years - after serving as a Buffalo police officer for 30 years.
When a gunman walked into the store on Saturday afternoon with an assault weapon, Salter sprang into action and pulled out his own weapon.
He then fired multiple times at the gunman - who was later identified as 18-year-old Payton Gendron - but his bullets were unable to pierce Gendron's armored plating, and Gendron was able to return fire - killing Salter.
In a press conference following the shooting Saturday afternoon, Joseph Gramaglia told reporters: 'One of the individuals inside the store is a security guard, a beloved security guard, who is a retired Buffalo Police officer, a hero in our eyes.'
Police Benevolent Association President John Evans also told WIVB in the aftermath: 'I had the pleasure of knowing him, great guy, well-respected, well-liked.
'This is just horrific,' he said of the attack at the Tops supermarket store, in which 10 people were killed and three others were injured. 'I don't know what other words to describe it.'
Salter was one of 10 people killed in the apparently racially-motivated attack at the supermarket on Saturday, which also took the life of Ruth Whitfield, a mother to four children including former Buffalo fire commissioner, Garnell W. Witfield, 64.
Gendron, of Conklin, New York, has since pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges. He is being held without bail.
Retired Buffalo Police Department cop Aaron Salter, pictured right, was working as a store security guard and shot suspect Payton Gendron, who returned fire and killed Salter
Salter was one of 10 people killed in the attack at the Tops Friendly Markets store in Buffalo, New York, which police now believe was racially-motivated
Salter first joined the Buffalo Police Department after graduating from high school.
He has previously been hailed for his work putting out a kitchen fire and catching the arsonist as he tried to escape in 1992.
Gendron, of Conklin, New York, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges
Four years later, Salter and his partner responded to a burglary in progress when they were confronted by a 25-year-old man, who approached them from behind and pointed a loaded 12-gauge shotgun at them.
Salter's partner quickly responded, shooting at the assailant, but missing.
Still, Salter said, those quick reflexes likely saved his life.
'My first reaction was to duck,' he told the Buffalo News at the time. 'I don't enjoy looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and if it hadn't been for my partner shooting first, it would have been a golden opportunity to shoot us.
'My partner probably saved us.'
Salter, a father of three, later retired from the Buffalo Police Department, and decided to take a job at the supermarket where his late mother, Carol, worked a s a cashier for 15 years before serving as a front-end manager until her retirement in 1986, according to the Daily Beast.
She and her late husband, Aaron Salter Sr., then opened a dry cleaners, which they ran until it closed in 1998.
Outside of his police work, Salter was said to be interested in green energy and had set up his own company
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Outside of his police and security work, Salter was said to be interested in green energy and had set up his own company.
'I'm always working on my vehicles and or my project of running engines on water for the last four years or so,' he wrote on LinkedIn. 'I would like to realize my dream of getting cars to run off of water using my newly discovered energy source some day.'
By 2015, he shared a video on Facebook of his hydrogen-electrolysis powered Ford F150 pickup truck, which he said could be started with gasoline and then switched over to run on water.
'The guys used to laugh at me,' he said in an interview that same year as he described a solar array he once installed at his home.
His family now remembers him as a hero, with his son, Aaron Salter III telling the Daily Beast: 'Today is a shock.
'I'm pretty sure he saved some lives today. He's a hero.'
Johnny Juliano, who claims to be one of his cousins, also posted a tribute to the late police officer, describing him as 'a true hero who risked his life trying to defend those helpless during a racist attack/ mass shooting .
'Retired BPD who was loved by all you [truly] will be missed and remembered for your heroic gesture,' he wrote.
And another
