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Brother of man slain in 'inhumane' Buffalo massacre calls shooting suspect a 'racist' and a 'coward'

May 17, 2022, 22:41 IST
Insider
A makeshift memorial near the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were shot dead.Usman KHAN / AFP) (Photo by USMAN KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • The brother of one of the victims killed in the Buffalo mass shooting called the suspect a "coward."
  • "What he did was an injustice," Frederick Morrison, the brother of victim Margus Morrison, told Insider.
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The brother of one of the victims slain in the Buffalo, New York, grocery store massacre branded the shooting suspect a "racist" and a "coward" on Tuesday.

"What he did was an injustice to all the lives lost," Frederick Morrison, the younger brother of 52-year-old victim Margus Morrison, told Insider of the 18-year-old white suspect in the mass shooting.

"He was racist," Frederick Morrison, 49, added. "He was a coward."

Margus Morrison, who Frederick Morrison said was a lifelong Buffalo resident and a married father of seven children, was one of 10 people killed on Saturday when a gunman in tactical gear wielding an assault-style rifle opened fire at a Tops supermarket in the city.

Three others were wounded in the rampage, which has been described by authorities as a "racially motivated hate crime."

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Of the 13 people shot at the store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, eleven of the victims were Black, while two were white, authorities said.

"That was a slaughter. That was a massacre," a still-stunned Frederick Morrison told Insider. "This is injustice and inhumane what he did."

Margus Morrison, a school bus aide in Buffalo, was at Tops on Saturday grocery shopping like any other "regular day," his brother said.

"He always goes to the store," Frederick Morrison said. "Nobody would think something like that — you go to the store, and you ain't going to see your family no more."

Margus Morrison's stepdaughter Sandra Demps told CNN that he was at the store buying snacks for a weekly movie night with his wife.

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"Nobody is prepared to think that somebody is going to lose a life like that," Frederick Morrison said of his brother's shopping trip.

Frederick Morrison said that his brother — who "loved" the city of Buffalo — was always a role model to him growing up and even taught him how to play basketball.

"He was a good, goofy guy. Serious at times, you know how life goes. Serious, goofy, happy, joy, all that," Frederick Morrison said. "He was a good dude."

His family has been left devastated by the loss, Frederick Morrison said.

Police arrested a shooting suspect shortly after Saturday's massacre and charged him with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Buffalo Police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Monday that the suspect had plans to continue his deadly rampage and target more Black people.

The US Justice Department is investigating the attack "as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism."

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