I know that some on the left try to politicize everything, no matter what it is.

But immediately in the wake of the Buffalo shooting, you had many people on the left on social media trying to blame it on Tucker Carlson because they want to do in his show. It wasn’t about the evil nature of the tragedy or the victims — it was about how they could use it for their agenda. That’s despicable.

I wanted to focus on the victims because that’s what I think should be the focus at this moment. Not politics or agenda items. We should know something about the people who were taken away from us and this world by this evil act. Not everyone has been identified yet. But some have, most notably Aaron Salter Jr, 55, the retired police officer who took on the gunman in the store.

This is Aaron Salter Jr.

By now, you've likely heard his story… but it's one that needs to be shared again and again.

The 55 yr old was the security guard, the hero, who fired at the suspect — trying to stop the monster.

Rest In Peace, Hero, Mr. Salter. 💔 pic.twitter.com/eVJP7oOyOV

— Mel Orlins (@Mel_Orlins) May 15, 2022

As we noted previously, Salter did shoot the gunman, but because he had on body armor, it had no effect and the gunman killed Salter in the exchange.

Salter worked for the Buffalo Police Department for three decades before retiring, and had been doing security at the store for four years.

In 1996 Salter Jr. survived an encounter with a suspect who pointed a shotgun at him during a burglary call, according to The Buffalo News.

“My first reaction was to duck,” Salter Jr. said. “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.”

But he also had a passion for the invention he had been working on — technology to run cars on water after starting them with gas.

“I’m a jack of all trades a master of none,” his profile for his position at AWS Hydrogen Technologies, LLC modestly read.

“I’m always working on my vehicles [sic] and or my project of running engines on water for the last four years or so, I would like to realize my dream of getting cars to run off of water using my newly discovered energy source some day.

Salter Jr. demonstrated how his 2010 Ford F-150 run using his AWS Hydrogen Fuel System in a video posted on YouTube.

Retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield heard about the shooting and came to help. That’s when he found out that his mother, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, was one of the victims. Garnell Whitfield said that his 88-year-old father had worked multiple jobs so his mother could stay home and take care of the kids.

“My mom was the consummate mom. My mother was a mother to the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same thing,” he said. After his father had to go into a nursing home eight years ago, she visited him every day.

This morning, we're focusing on the victims.

This is Ruth Whitfield.

She was 86 and was the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield. pic.twitter.com/kaV1r7xPtx

— Mel Orlins (@Mel_Orlins) May 15, 2022

“She went there every day. She took care of our dad as she’d done her whole married life. She brought him clean clothes, clipped his nails, shaved him, cut his hair. She did everything,” Whitfield said.

Whitfield, 64, credited his mother’s strength and commitment to family to her religious faith.

“She inspired me to be a man of God, and to do whatever I do the best I could do. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her,” Whitfield said in citing the role his mother played in his rise to the top position in the Buffalo Fire Department.

She was on her way home from the nursing home when she stopped in at Tops for something to eat.

Pearly Young, 77, also stopped in to get groceries. She ran a food pantry, feeding those in need for 25 years, every Saturday. She was a “mother, grandmother and missionary,” the local news noted.

Pearly Young, 77, was killed today in #Buffalo shopping for groceries.

For 25 years she ran a pantry where every Saturday she fed people in Central Park. Every. Saturday.
She loved singing, dancing, & being with family.

She was mother, grandma, & missionary. Gone too soon 🕊 pic.twitter.com/dQ5X9KBJCQ

— Madison Carter (@madisonlcarter) May 15, 2022

Celestine Chaney, 65, was visiting her sister in Buffalo, her son Wayne Jones said, and she went to Tops with her sister to get strawberries to make a strawberry shortcake. Her sister was able to make it to a freezer to hide, but his mother wasn’t able to move as quickly.

Celestine Chaney, 65, was a breast cancer survivor with 7 grandkids. pic.twitter.com/DaGBmhKi5q

— Natasha ⚯͛ (@ndelriego) May 15, 2022

Roberta Drury, 32, was going to get things for dinner. Her sister Amanda said she was “the center of attention and made the whole room smile and laugh.”

Roberta Drury. One of the 10 people killed in yesterday’s mass shooting. Pic from The Dalmatia Hotel. They described her as a bright light in the world always laughing and smiling. pic.twitter.com/YyMFLJzoBg

— Viktoria Hallikäär (@ViktoriaKrista) May 15, 2022

Heyward Patterson was a deacon in his church. He used to give people rides to the supermarket and helped them carry their groceries.

Patterson was loading an elderly woman’s groceries into his car when she became the first person shot, and he the second, according to his friend Tony Sanders, 68.

“He was a deacon and my best friend,” Sanders said.

Katherine Massey’s sister Barbara said that she was a “beautiful soul.”

Thirteen people were shot and three survived.

Those are the people identified so far, and just some of the things that they contributed to this world.