1 of 5 | Police stand in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 15, one day after the shooting attack that killed 10 people. It reopened on Friday. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI |
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Police said the gunman, 19-year-old Peyton Gendron, used a high-powered rifle to target the shoppers and fired more than 60 rounds inside the store.
Tops said about three-quarters of its employees are returning to the Buffalo store to work, but the rest haven't yet decided whether they're ready to return to their jobs there.
Bullet holes are seen in the glass of a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 15, one day after a gunman killed 10 shoppers in a mass shooting attack at the store. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI
The store is also planning to erect memorials inside and outside of the building.
Burt Flickinger III of retail consultant Strategic ResourceGroup said that renovating and not razing the store was the right move.
"It's really important to totally transform the store, especially since consumers really have no choices on the east side," Flickinger told Buffalo News. "You can't level the store. You can't wait years for the store to be rebuilt. But at the same time, visually, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically and commercially: the store needs to change inside and out."
Friday's reopening is the clearest sign yet of Buffalo's mostly Black community moving on from the deadly shooting.