4 Shot Dead at Buffalo Restaurant; Man Arrested
Updated at 11:33 p.m. ET
Eight people leaving a party at a downtown Buffalo restaurant were shot early Saturday, four of them fatally, including a Texas man who had returned to his hometown to celebrate his first wedding anniversary, police said.
Managers had decided to close the City Grill in the city's business district after an altercation inside. The victims were leaving at about 2:30 a.m. when a man who had been inside began shooting, police said.
"There were verbal things going on. Management apparently chose to close down and have everybody leave the restaurant," Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said. "People were leaving when this shooting happened."
Keith Johnson, 25, of Buffalo was charged Saturday afternoon with four counts of second-degree murder and could face more charges. Johnson was in custody late Saturday afternoon and unavailable for comment.
Police didn't know whether Johnson was involved in the earlier altercation and asked witnesses to speak up.
"We need people to come forward," said Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda, who estimated there were 100 people at the scene when police arrived.
The group was attending a party in advance of a more formal anniversary celebration scheduled for later Saturday, authorities said. The couple, Danyell Mackin, 30, and his wife, Tanisha, married in Texas a year ago and had returned to celebrate with Buffalo-area friends and family, authorities said. Tanisha Mackin was not hurt.
"An occasion that should have been a joyous one, a happy one, turned tragic," Mayor Byron Brown said Saturday near the restaurant, a popular stop for office workers during the week and people attending theater and sporting events at night.
The Mackins, who grew up in the same neighborhood, had been friends since they were 13 and started dating in 2001, according to a website created to commemorate their marriage and provide details about the celebration.
The couple, known as "Dee" and "Tee," have a 6-year-old son, Danyell Jr., and a 7-month-old daughter, Destinee, who was scheduled to be christened on Sunday, the website said. The family had moved from Buffalo to Austin, Texas, in 2006, and the Mackins worked for a local bank.
The reception was to be held at a community center in Buffalo, and the couple said online that it was "dedicated to the people who meant so much to us and that we lost."
Police identified the other three victims as Willie McCaa III, 26; Shawnita McNeil, 27; and Tiffany Wilhite, 32.
"A senseless, random killing," said Wilhite's father, Raymond Wilhite, who returned to the restaurant a few hours after the shooting. "This kind of thing just has to stop."
McNeil was Wilhite's cousin.
"There's no words to explain how I feel," McNeil's mother, Ruby Martin, said. "She got along with everybody. She knows a lot of people. She didn't deserve to be killed. I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended for her."
Demario Vass, 30, remained in critical condition Saturday night, police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said. Two men, James Robb Jr., 27, and Shamar Davis, 30, were in stable condition. And 27-year-old Tillman Ward, who was shot in the elbow, was in good condition.
Tommy Dates, 35, of Buffalo, said he was at the bar area of the restaurant with his friends when he noticed a party had broken up. He said people started leaving the restaurant but rushed back inside a few minutes later.
"A lot of people were real upset, just trying to get out of the way," Dates said at the scene about two hours after the shootings. "Everyone was in a panic."
Johnson lives in a two-family house about six miles from the restaurant, near the University of Buffalo's south campus. No one responded to a knock on his door Saturday night, and a woman who answered the door of the other family's home said he lives with his mother and that she also left with police when Johnson was taken into custody.
The restaurant posted a statement on its website Saturday expressing condolences to the victims and their families.
"We at City Grill are deeply saddened by the tragic events," the statement said.
Three covered bodies lay in front of the restaurant for several hours, one of them on the sidewalk across the street. About 20 people stood behind yellow crime scene tape, some trying to console grief-stricken relatives and friends.
"It was horrible seeing members of our community lying in the street," the mayor said.
The window of an office next to the Main Street restaurant was shattered, as was glass at a light-rail stop across the street.
"Nobody knows why," Martin said. "Somebody else was just shooting in a crowd."
CBS/AP Eight people leaving a party at a downtown Buffalo restaurant were shot early Saturday, four of them fatally, including a Texas man who had returned to his hometown to celebrate his first wedding anniversary, police said.
Managers had decided to close the City Grill in the city's business district after an altercation inside. The victims were leaving at about 2:30 a.m. when a man who had been inside began shooting, police said.
"There were verbal things going on. Management apparently chose to close down and have everybody leave the restaurant," Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said. "People were leaving when this shooting happened."
Keith Johnson, 25, of Buffalo was charged Saturday afternoon with four counts of second-degree murder and could face more charges. Johnson was in custody late Saturday afternoon and unavailable for comment.
Police didn't know whether Johnson was involved in the earlier altercation and asked witnesses to speak up.
"We need people to come forward," said Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda, who estimated there were 100 people at the scene when police arrived.
The group was attending a party in advance of a more formal anniversary celebration scheduled for later Saturday, authorities said. The couple, Danyell Mackin, 30, and his wife, Tanisha, married in Texas a year ago and had returned to celebrate with Buffalo-area friends and family, authorities said. Tanisha Mackin was not hurt.
"An occasion that should have been a joyous one, a happy one, turned tragic," Mayor Byron Brown said Saturday near the restaurant, a popular stop for office workers during the week and people attending theater and sporting events at night.
The Mackins, who grew up in the same neighborhood, had been friends since they were 13 and started dating in 2001, according to a website created to commemorate their marriage and provide details about the celebration.
The couple, known as "Dee" and "Tee," have a 6-year-old son, Danyell Jr., and a 7-month-old daughter, Destinee, who was scheduled to be christened on Sunday, the website said. The family had moved from Buffalo to Austin, Texas, in 2006, and the Mackins worked for a local bank.
The reception was to be held at a community center in Buffalo, and the couple said online that it was "dedicated to the people who meant so much to us and that we lost."
Police identified the other three victims as Willie McCaa III, 26; Shawnita McNeil, 27; and Tiffany Wilhite, 32.
"A senseless, random killing," said Wilhite's father, Raymond Wilhite, who returned to the restaurant a few hours after the shooting. "This kind of thing just has to stop."
McNeil was Wilhite's cousin.
"There's no words to explain how I feel," McNeil's mother, Ruby Martin, said. "She got along with everybody. She knows a lot of people. She didn't deserve to be killed. I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended for her."
Demario Vass, 30, remained in critical condition Saturday night, police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said. Two men, James Robb Jr., 27, and Shamar Davis, 30, were in stable condition. And 27-year-old Tillman Ward, who was shot in the elbow, was in good condition.
Tommy Dates, 35, of Buffalo, said he was at the bar area of the restaurant with his friends when he noticed a party had broken up. He said people started leaving the restaurant but rushed back inside a few minutes later.
"A lot of people were real upset, just trying to get out of the way," Dates said at the scene about two hours after the shootings. "Everyone was in a panic."
Johnson lives in a two-family house about six miles from the restaurant, near the University of Buffalo's south campus. No one responded to a knock on his door Saturday night, and a woman who answered the door of the other family's home said he lives with his mother and that she also left with police when Johnson was taken into custody.
The restaurant posted a statement on its website Saturday expressing condolences to the victims and their families.
"We at City Grill are deeply saddened by the tragic events," the statement said.
Three covered bodies lay in front of the restaurant for several hours, one of them on the sidewalk across the street. About 20 people stood behind yellow crime scene tape, some trying to console grief-stricken relatives and friends.
"It was horrible seeing members of our community lying in the street," the mayor said.
The window of an office next to the Main Street restaurant was shattered, as was glass at a light-rail stop across the street.
"Nobody knows why," Martin said. "Somebody else was just shooting in a crowd."
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Wyodutch is 100% correct. Who else besides me is shocked that African Americans make up around 10% of the population yet make up around 45% of those in prisons?
I have yet to meet one person who can explain to me why this is. I am still waiting for one intelligent person to explain this 450% deviation discrepancy.
---------------
The answers to your questions are extremely complex and sociological and complex. It is much deeper than a simplistic "blacks are bad people." You might want to take the time to read this article, which was originally published in the Boston Globe:
http://ronmull.tripod.com/racism.html
This will lend some perspective to a situation that is too complex to discuss in the short posts here.
I remember having some old black men as basically friends, in the early and middle 1950's their society was not riddled with crime, as it is today.
I can remember the early 1950's I remember before the police really started, their "program" agains Africans-Americans.
This "new program" begun to replace the old systme, because the old system drew too much attention its self, that old system of Jim Crow and lynching.
Police nearly all police departments started working in secret in the 1960's.
I still have certification as to having the proper education to be a Peace Officer, or law enforcement officer in the State of Georgia.
I have some time riding, and driving in a state owned law enforcement vehicle.
I have never known a white officer who is not a bigot, or a secret bigot, I would assune that their are a few who are not, I certainly do not consider myself a bigot.
But the secercy of police all police allows the use of secret tactics including the RFID microchip.
The new system extremely oppressive, however it is, "secret oppression", it is insiddious and sick.
When technology exist it will be used, which goes to say it will be misused.
By oppressing African-Americans, like all other humans they act out, they then commit more crime, this is intentional on the part of white America, the police are "engineering consent", for future actions agains African -Americans, Similar to how oppression, in Germany engineering consent for the Holocaust, and the near estermination of the European Jews.
I have yet to meet one person who can explain to me why this is. I am still waiting for one intelligent person to explain this 450% deviation discrepancy.
Learn the facts:
http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf
I know the truth, I know the explanation.
African-Americans are being targeted, in fact it is my belief that it can be proven with a questionnaire if given to all inmates.
ENGINEERED ENTRAPMENT, is being used, many operatives, working on one individual, at a time convincing him that, drug crime, can and does pay and one can become rich.
Street Theater, individuals will preform for the targeted individual, they will sell drugs, and never will they be arrested, but the first time the targeted individual sell drugs he, will be arrested.
It is my belief that targeted individuals are surreptitious implanted with a RFID Microchip, this way the. "Street Theater Performers" only have to preform for the targeted individual, and the rest of society is unaware of their performance.
One should read in the book "LEGACY OF ASHES" written by Tim Weiner, Chapter 27 how the NSA targeted the African_American Community for telephone surveillance, in a effort to identify potential community leaders, these are the targeted individuals.
Thnks for the read.
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I remember the Detroit Free Press being branded as "racist" back in the 60's too... because they printed the race of the criminal in their daily police log.
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Maybe the "people in Buffalo" you feel so sorry for, should get up off the porch swing and do something to cleanup their neighborhood. What do ya think? Good idea?