Despite distance, New York state shooting impact felt here

Despite the distance from New York, the feelings of fear and pain are deep in the north Minneapolis community, already intertwined in a culture of violence.

Saturday’s mass shooting killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York after an 18-year-old white man opened fire at a grocery store. Investigators say the shootings were motivated by race – the store is in a community with many black families.

“This week has been tough,” Andre Dukes, vice president of family and community impact with the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), said. 

“It’s been tough for many families [and the] many children who are already feeling unsafe in their communities.”

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS spoke to Dukes at NAZ’s north Minneapolis headquarters on the same day President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visited the Buffalo community. 

“What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism,” President Biden said while addressing the nation. 

The president did not mince his words – calling the shooter a white supremacist and referring to white supremacy as poison. 

“In America, evil will not win. I promise you, hate will not prevail, and white supremacy will not have the last word,” President Biden said.

When asked about what that statement meant to him, Dukes feels there’s work to do.

“The reality is that white supremacy is alive and well in our systems, in our neighborhoods, in our culture,” Dukes said, adding: “It has marginalized and ruined the lives of so many people of color, and it has to end.”

“We as a nation have to take a stand and say, ‘Not on our watch, today is the day we’re going to end this kind of activity.”

Tuesday, President Biden also called on Congress to pass legislation to “keep assault weapons off the street” and address how the internet “plays a big role with recruiting and mobilizing terrorism.”