May 19, 2026

The fourth anniversary of the horrific mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo on May 14 was both solemn and joyful.

In an afternoon ceremony Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Sean Ryan and others addressed survivors, families and the media in a tent outside the Jefferson Avenue store. That was followed by a reading of the names of the 10 people killed May 14, 2022 by a shooter motivated by racism and hate.

More than 600 volunteers—including UUP members—took part in 12 service events across the city on May 14. President Fred Kowal, former statewide Vice President for Professionals Tom Tucker and a small group of Buffalo-area members were on East Utica Street throughout the day, talking with people and waiting to clean up after a street party that was part of the event, established in 2025 as Buffalo’s official day of service and remembrance.

Kowal, along with Buffalo Center chapter President Kathleen “Kat” Kieler, Buffalo HSC Chapter president Jim Lichtenthal and others moved and stacked dozens of tables and folding chairs used for the street festival, where despite temperatures in the 40s, volunteers spent the afternoon painting faces, making balloon animals, making crafts with kids, serving food, playing music and cutting hair for free.

“UUP is a part of the Buffalo community so we should be here today and we belong here today,” Kowal said. “Our members who work at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo State University and SUNY Fredonia live and work in this community and what happened on May 14, 2022, affected—and still affects—them and our entire union very, very deeply. We will not forget and we will continue to stand strong and speak out against all types of racism and gun violence.”

Tom Melendy, Buffalo HSC Chapter, said he remembered hearing about the shooting while he was in his office. Melendy is a microbiology and immunology professor and works at the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, not far from the Tops on Jefferson Avenue. He could hear the sirens wailing as police arrived and ambulances carried the wounded to Erie County Medical Center.

Melendy joined a community response team after the shooting. He was one of many UUP members, along with Kowal, who helped bring and distribute food to the neighborhood while Tops was closed. He joined with the thousands of mourning, angry people who marched in the streets surrounding the store.

He said he witnessed a spirit of coming together throughout the city and a change in the way the HSC interacts with the community around it. There is more outreach now. Vans from the medical center park offer free dental care, women’s care and pediatric services. The HSC has also opened its spaces to show movies.

Instead of Starbucks products, the café at the medical center serves coffee from the Golden Cup, a local business a block away from the Jefferson Avenue Tops store.

UUP organizer Danielle Judge-Freeman provided UUP T-shirts to volunteers and made crafts with kids while her own family and lifelong friends visited.

The day was both professional and personal for Judge-Freeman, who is deeply connected to the Buffalo community, raised her children in the city and guided many others as a former employee of the Boys and Girls Club. She displayed a large photograph in the UUP tent of DonnaSue Crawford, her best friend’s mother.

Crawford was in the Tops the day of the shooting, standing in line at the customer service desk when the shooter entered the store. He shot the woman behind Crawford. She dropped everything and ran to the back where she hid with other people in a break room. They barricaded the door. Outside, her daughter, Tracey Adams waited for news, unsure if her mother survived.

Crawford was physically unharmed that day, but Adams said she was never the same. She never went back into the store. Seemingly in perfect health, she died suddenly at 71, in January 2024.

At the afternoon ceremony, Hochul announced the state will add another $3 million toward the construction of the 5/14 Memorial and Living Center planned for a site at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Best Street, bringing the state’s contribution to $9 million. The building is expected to cost $15 million.