BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's been a little over two weeks since the horrific mass shooting at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue. Now, the community is trying to do whatever necessary to heal, help and try to move forward.
But what about the Tops itself?
Neighbors on the East Side have been very vocal about the significance of this store, many saying there's much more to it than what meets the eye. This is why there are a lot of different opinions on what people think should be done with it moving forward.
Tanisha Waters lives nearby and tells 2 On Your Side, "I would like to see them memorialized. But I would like to see the Tops moved across the street because everybody I talk to, they not coming back to this Tops no more."
John Frazier who is also a nearby resident happens to agree.
"The whole thing of it, it was just tough," Frazier says. "I think they should just close it and maybe find a location in this area nearby. So much has happened there, no reason to open it back."
But Gregory Elmore has a different take. In fact, he tells 2 On Your Side's Liz Lewin he saw the shooter with his own two eyes and lost two friends that day.
"But still, there's nothing around here so, we need these Tops back," Elmore says. "We need to have a memorial, but if they close it, where will the elderly people go?"
Flowers are still being laid and candles are being lit. The sorrow, it's still so fresh and real and acts of kindness and generosity they haven't slowed down.
Tim Joseph owns a nearby farm in Weedsport, NY, and decided to load his truck up with two freezers full of fresh frozen grass-fed meats that he raised on his land and hand them out to anyone who wanted some.
"It's just so terrible," Joseph says with his eyes full of tears. "It's hard to believe someone would do that. I don't know why. I'm a hunter, I fish, I trap and I don't know what the answer is. I don't know how you cure these people's anger. I just don't know what the answer is."
Tops says its plan, for now, is to remodel and reopen sometime in the future.