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Buffalo shooting victim: Roberta Drury was at the supermarket to get food for dinner

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We are learning more about the 10 people who were killed at that Buffalo supermarket. One of them was 32-year-old Roberta Drury. She was in town visiting her brother. NPR's Joe Hernandez has this remembrance.

JOE HERNANDEZ, BYLINE: Just down the street from the Tops supermarket is where Christopher Moyer lives with his family. Moyer is Roberta Drury's adoptive brother, and the two lived close to each other in Buffalo.

CHISTOPHER MOYER: I'm recovering from leukemia, and she would come over and help us out.

HERNANDEZ: Roberta routinely shopped for groceries for him and his family, Moyer says, walking to the Tops supermarket nearby.

MOYER: She would go to Tops for us all the time, actually.

HERNANDEZ: It was at that Tops supermarket where Roberta and nine other people were shot and killed Saturday in a shooting motivated by racism. It was a complete shock, says Moyer.

MOYER: It's very hard on the family. This was very unexpected.

HERNANDEZ: The shooting rocked the small Buffalo neighborhood and reverberated across the country. President Biden called the shooting an act of white supremacy. A nightmare is how Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown described it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BYRON BROWN: This should not happen in this community and any community anywhere in our country.

HERNANDEZ: But it did happen. And when Christopher Moyer first heard news of the shooting, he figured his sister was probably safe. But then he started to hear from some of Roberta's friends who told him she'd gone to the store and hadn't come back.

MOYER: We then started to become concerned. And she always has her phone on her, so when we tried to reach her by phone, she didn't respond.

HERNANDEZ: Moyer says the predominantly Black area where he lives near the Tops supermarket is a tight-knit community.

MOYER: It's a real blow and a real tragedy to the area. I don't think anyone saw something like this coming.

HERNANDEZ: He thanked those who've reached out to offer support, and he praised first responders, including the store's security guard who was also killed in the shooting. Moyer says his sister struggled in life. He says, though, what he'll remember about Roberta is how she would come over to play with his kids and how she would help the family out by going to the grocery store.

Joe Hernandez, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.