Aaron Salter Jr, Former Buffalo Cop Who Died in Tops Friendly Markets Mass Shooting, Mourned, Skip to Main Content
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Instead, police say the assailant returned fire and killed Salter—whose family was mourning a man city officials said was an undeniable “hero” on a horrific day."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“Today is a shock,” his son, Aaron Salter III, told The Daily Beast in Lockport, a suburb of Buffalo."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“I’m pretty sure he saved some lives today. He’s a hero.”"]]],[10,0],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Salter, who leaves behind three children, joined the Buffalo Police Department right out of high school."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In 1996, he faced down another gunman—and cheated death."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“My first reaction was to duck,” "],[0,[1],0,"he told "],[0,[2],2,"The Buffalo News"],[0,[],0," after a burglary suspect pointed a 12-gauge shotgun in his face. “I don’t enjoy looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and if it hadn’t been for my partner shooting first, it would have been a golden opportunity to shoot us. My partner probably saved us.”"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Adam Bennefield, a cousin of Salter’s who lives nearby in Buffalo, said the family was extremely shaken up by Saturday’s mass shooting."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“I don’t think anybody could ever anticipate something like this happening,” Bennefield, 44, told The Daily Beast. “I don’t think anybody can. Everybody’s hurt right now, everybody’s upset.”"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Bennefield said he always had tremendous respect for his cousin, who had deep knowledge not just about police work, but also “things outside of being an officer.”"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In retirement, Salter was pursuing his dream of building vehicles that run on green energy and had a company called AWS Hydrogen Technologies."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“I’m always working on my vehicles and or my project of running engines on water for the last four years or so,” "],[0,[3],1,"his LinkedIn profile reads"],[0,[],0,". “I would like to realize my dream of getting cars to run off of water using my newly discovered energy source some day.”"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In a 2015 video, Salter gave viewers a tour of his hydrogen-electrolysis powered Ford F-150 pickup, which he said could be started with gasoline and then switched over to run on water."]]],[10,1],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“The guys used to laugh at me,” "],[0,[4],1,"Salter said in an online interview that same year"],[0,[],0,", describing a solar array he once installed at his home."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Salter’s late mother, Carol, "],[0,[5],1,"worked as a cashier at a Tops market in Buffalo for 15 years"],[0,[],0,", then served as front-end manager until her own retirement in 1986. She and her late husband, Aaron Salter, Sr., then opened a dry cleaners, which they ran until it closed in 1998. "]]],[10,2],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"In a surreal twist, Aaron Salter, III had long worried about an attack just like the one that killed his dad."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"“If i hear another story of someone mass shooing innocent people or like yesterday the 20 year old in Missouri who when to Walmart with and [sic] assault rifle and 100 rounds and recorded himself making comments to people shopping I’m gonna loose [sic] my mind,” "],[0,[6],1,"he wrote on Facebook in August 2019"],[0,[],0,". “[W]e can’t even do everyday shit without having to watch our backs and that’s scary af! The sad thing is I feel like a crazy close to home is gonna do something soon and I’m not ready for that.”"]]]]},"hero":{"image":{"id":"3424169","crops":{"1_1":{"x":398.6280701754386,"y":0,"width":1478,"height":1478},"16_9":{"x":0,"y":23.214659685863875,"width":2206,"height":1241},"original":{"x":0,"y":0,"width":2206,"height":1478}},"title":"","credit":"Courtesy Aaron Salter, III","mobiledoc_caption":null,"alt_text":null,"url":"https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/v1652575618/IMG_3775_gelobb.jpg","public_id":"IMG_3775_gelobb","version":"1652575618","__typename":"Image"},"__typename":"Media","video":null},"accentColor":null,"audience":"public","autoBrandSafe":false,"autoIAB":[{"id":"379","category":"News and Politics","score":0.91308594,"parentId":null,"parentIABCategory":null,"__typename":"AutoIABCategory"}],"autoKeywords":["daily beast","father","family","hours","buffalo","veteran","disaster","hero cop","mourned","aaron salter jr","tops mass shooting","former buffalo cop","aaron salter iii","tops supermarket","supremacist shooter"],"autoSentiment":{"neutral":"0.2","positive":"0.2","negative":"0.6","__typename":"AutoSentiment"},"autoThreats":[{"id":"GGT7","confidence":"VERY_HIGH","category":"Disasters","__typename":"AutoThreat"},{"id":"GGT6","confidence":"VERY_HIGH","category":"Hate speech, harassment, and cyberbullying","__typename":"AutoThreat"},{"id":"GGT9","confidence":"VERY_HIGH","category":"Medical","__typename":"AutoThreat"},{"id":"GGT1","confidence":"VERY_HIGH","category":"Violence and gore","__typename":"AutoThreat"},{"id":"GGT2","confidence":"VERY_HIGH","category":"Criminal","__typename":"AutoThreat"}],"canonicalSlug":"aaron-salter-jr-former-buffalo-cop-who-died-in-tops-mass-shooting-mourned","crossPromotion":null,"dek":"Aaron Salter Jr., a 30-year veteran of the Buffalo Police Department, was gunned down by a racist shooter at a Tops supermarket. 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