Dianna Hobbs’s touching online tribute to Buffalo supermarket massacre victim, Pearl Young
Pearl Young, 77, a church missionary who fed the hungry, was among the victims slain in the Buffalo supermarket massacre, Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2022.
By Rebecca Johnson // Racism // EEW Magazine Online
Dianna Hobbs, president of a prominent Buffalo, New York nonprofit organization wrote a heartfelt tribute to Pearl Young, the 77-year-old woman who was among 10 people shot and killed at a Buffalo supermarket in a racially motivated attack on the afternoon of Saturday, May 14.
The Empowering Everyday Women CEO, 45, who called Young “loving,” said on her official Facebook page, “I am in shock, just as we all are, that 18-year-old Payton Gendron, an avowed White Supremacist, walked into Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson in Buffalo, the inner city with a dense Black population, with full tactical gear and the N-word etched into his assault rifle. My husband Kenya and I have personally shopped there.”
Police officers secure the scene after a shooting at TOPS supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., May 14, 2022. (Jeffrey T. Barnes/Reuters)
According to Associated Press reports, Gendron had researched the local demographics and arrived in the area a day in advance to conduct reconnaissance with the “express purpose” of killing as many Black people as possible.
Hobbs, also president of EEW Magazine Online, said that Young “was shopping at Tops after attending a prayer breakfast” when she was hit by gunfire—something Hobbs’s sister called to tell her.
“Shavette and her husband Glenwood, Mother Young's nephew by marriage, went to sweet Mother Young's house to knock on her door after no one could reach her, and loved ones began to worry,” explained Hobbs, giving exclusive insight and documenting the behind-the-scenes, heart-shattering events.
Pictured above are siblings Shavette Young (L) and Dianna Hobbs (R) at Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York in June 2021. Shavette is married to the nephew of Pearl Young and accompanied him to check on the 77-year-old at her home when family members could not get in touch with her. There was no answer. The beloved church mother was killed in the massacre while shopping after a prayer breakfast. (Credit: Instagram.com/imdiannahobbs)
“When there was no answer, there was an eerie feeling that something terrible had occurred which, indeed, had,” she said.
The chilling feeling soon turned into a horrific reality. Gendron shot, in total, 11 Black people and two white people in the neighborhood market.
“This individual came here with the express purpose of taking as many Black lives as he possibly could,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a news conference Sunday.
Hobbs, who said she “used to attend the same church with Mother Young,” wrote that she was “such a positive, warm, loving spirit. You had to experience her smile to understand how it would light up a room.”
Hobbs continued, “I will forever remember that beautiful smile, how much she loved to praise the Lord, and how encouraging she was to me and my husband. She loved hearing me sing at church and admonished me, always, to go forth in the work of the Lord. She helped instruct me in the word of God to prepare me to obtain my Evangelist Missionary license. It is people like her who, along my life's journey, helped mold and shape me into the woman I am today.
Mother Young never had an unkind word to say.”
Mother Pearl Young at Good Samaritan Church of God In Christ in Cheektowaga, NY (Credit: WGRZ-TV)
Young, who was a missionary that fed the hungry, “inspired” Hobbs, she said, adding, “I never imagined that Mother Young would lose her life in a violent, racist attack. She loved God with her whole heart. She loved God's people, and so many people loved her.”
The White Supremacist shooter’s manifesto, posted online, outlined a racist ideology rooted in a belief that the United States should belong only to white people. All others, the document said, were “replacers” who should be eliminated by force or terror. The attack was intended to intimidate all non-white, non-Christian people and get them to leave the country, it said.
Gendron traveled about 200 miles from his Conklin, New York, home to Buffalo and that particular grocery store, leaving a city devastated and grappling with the tragic aftermath.
In a moment of immense pain, Hobbs called for prayer. “Pray for Buffalo that we will heal. Pray for the traumatized children, men, women, and families,” she said.
The Buffalo attack was just the latest act of mass violence in a country unsettled by racial tensions, gun violence and a recent spate of hate crimes. It came just a month after a shooting on a Brooklyn subway wounded 10 and just over a year after 10 were killed in a shooting at a Colorado supermarket.
“Pray that the hatred of a teenager with a White Supremacist agenda will not divide our city, our community, or our nation. Pray that the larger community of pundits, commentators, and leaders will avoid the temptation to use this tragedy as an occasion to further politicize and polarize an already divided country. More love is what we need,” Hobbs said.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
