Father relives horrifying mass shooting scene in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WHEC) — A father relives the terrifying moments he and his daughter had to hide from the gunman in the mass shooting that took place in Buffalo Saturday afternoon.

News10NBC’s Stephanie Duprey was on scene to report on the horrifying incident that happened at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo earlier today.

She spoke with two survivors on camera, respecting the space of others who are still in utter shock. One shared the horrific details of how he and his 8-year-old daughter escaped and hid from the gunman.

“I basically just had my hand over her mouth because she was crying and scared and wondering if her mom was alive," said Thomas.

“A bunch of shots rang out so I grabbed her and I head in the back of the milk coolers then he came and shots seemed like they went on forever just never-ending.“

Lamont Thomas and his 8-year-old daughter Londin, were buying cake mix, when suddenly they had to hide for their lives.

“He actually shot through the milk cooler but it never no bullets went through the milk cooler where we were at so we were kind of protected by the little storage room that they had there,” said Thomas.

Thomas relives the fear of thinking he was going to die. He says he could hear the gunman getting closer to where he and his little girl were hiding. At that point he was hiding with a group of people, all huddled together in the milk fridge—telling each other to be quiet.

“When it first started you could see the people in the front running I took her and ran in there with a bunch of other people who ran back there too. I basically just had my hand over her mouth she was crying and scared wondering if her mom was alive.”

Thomas and his daughter are OK. He says what he and his daughter went through mentally is so significant that it might be a while before he steps foot in another store.

We learned from Buffalo police that a security guard from the store is one of the victims. He put his life before others and died trying to stop the gunman. Another survivor says he frequents the tops on Jefferson Avenue and knew the guard.

“One guy just walked by here and told me he was related to the security guard he was walking by crying telling me you remember him, I said yeah he’s dead he got shot too and the whole thing was livestreamed it’s just so sad," said survivor Howard Shackleford, who says he escaped death by five minutes."

“When I got to the door I changed my mind because in this area a lot of the time the pie is not fresh so I said I’d go up by University then I heard shots going off but at the time I didn’t know that was actually happening. I didn’t find out until I got over there my family called me. I was just there. Five minutes later I would’ve been deceased," said Shackleford.