Carolyn Thompson, Robert Bumsted, Matt Rourke, Aaron Morrison, Noreen Nasir and Pia Sarkar led AP’s comprehensive all-formats coverage in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. In the week that followed the racist attack, the team on the ground captured the sorrow and outrage of the city’s Black community.
Buffalo reporter Thompson, with an assist from New York City colleague Matt Sedensky, chronicled the victims’ last day and their otherwise routine trips to the Tops market that Saturday. In one remarkable interview, recorded by video journalist Bumsted and photographer Rourke, a woman recounts casually shopping with her sister who was lost in the chaos of the shooting. The family tells of their pain at learning of the sister’s death — when they saw graphic video posted on their social media feeds.
Business editor Sarkar and video journalist Nasir reported on the hole left in the fabric of the community by the current closure of the supermarket, the only such store for miles.
Race and ethnicity writer Morrison, meanwhile, captured personal stories of mourning and anger in the wake of the shooting, and what the path to healing might look like for the struggling community.
A person visits a makeshift memorial, May 19, 2022, near the scene of the May 14 mass shooting at a supermarket,in Buffalo, N.Y.
AP Photo / Matt Rourke
A week after the mass shooting at a Tops supermarket, people pray at a memorial outside the shooting scene in Buffalo, N.Y., May 21, 2022. Tops was encouraging people to join its stores in a moment of silence at 2:30 p.m., the approximate time of the attack a week earlier.
AP Photo / Joshua Bessex
Tirzah Patterson, left, former wife of Buffalo shooting victim Heyward Patterson, speaks as her son, Jaques "Jake" Patterson, 12, covers his face during a news conference outside the Antioch Baptist Church in Buffalo, N.Y. , May 19, 2022.
AP Photo / Joshua Bessex
Curtis Hawkins is overcome with emotion at the scene of the racist mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., May 19, 2022, five days after an 18-year-old killed 10 people.
AP Photo / Matt Rourke
Katherine Mielnicki cries outside of Roberta Drury’s funeral service in Syracuse, N.Y., May 21, 2022. “I can't go in there, I just can't do it,” said Mielnicki, who lived with Drury for a time. Drury was one of 10 killed a week earlier in a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.
AP Photo / Lauren Petracca
People attend a service at the Antioch Baptist Church in Buffalo, N.Y., May 19, 2022, five days after a racist mass shooting at a Tops supermarket killed 10.
AP Photo / Joshua Bessex
The work of the team in Buffalo anchored a deep lineup of stories by AP journalists elsewhere:
— Mike Sisak obtained the gunman’s online diary.
— Bernard Condon examined how the gunman had been flagged at his high school over a threatening comment.
— Haleluya Hadero, Barbara Ortutay and Matt O'Brien reported on Big Tech’s struggles with violent online content.
— Lindsay Whitehurst, Michael Tarm and James Anderson reported on “red flag” laws.
— David Bauder explained the underlying theme of “replacement theory.”
— Deepti Hajela, Brendan Farrington and Claudia Lauer joined Morrison in writing about the country's history of racial violence.
— Eric Tucker, Michael Kunzelman and Amanda Seitz examined paths to radicalization.
— Tucker and Michael Balsamo worked law enforcement sources for investigative details.
— Michelle Smith wrote about how America has come to accept death.
AP’s sophisticated array of enterprise coverage was fast, insightful and competitive in all formats, even as the Buffalo team provided spot coverage of court appearances and press briefings.