Relatives honor Ruth Whitfield 86 as a devoted mom wife and grandmother

Relatives of Buffalo shooting victim Ruth Whitfield paid tribute to their family matriarch and called for policy changes in her memory at an emotional press conference on Monday. Whitfield's children and grandchildren shared treasured memories and calls to action at the event with their legal team, which is led by prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Crump described her as "a great lady, a hero for this community [and] an angel for her family," including her four children and husband of 68 years, who has lived in a nearby nursing home for nearly a decade. Whitfield visited the nursing home every day to care for her husband, and had stopped at the Tops grocery store on her way home from there on Saturday."When she didn't feel like it she did it, and she didn't feel like it on this past day either, but she did it anyway," her son Garnell Whitfield, Jr. said, referring to her daily visits. "She left there to get groceries on the way home, and she encountered this evil, hateful — she didn't deserve that ... Nobody deserves that."Crump and his associates described Saturday's attack as an act of domestic terrorism by a white supremacist, referring to the racist writings reportedly written by the alleged gunman. They said it is not enough just to hold the suspect accountable, adding that there is a need to address the root of the problem by holding responsible the people who "curate" hate in environments like the internet and cable television. Crump, who is known for representing many families of Black Americans killed by the police, said the tragedy creates an opportunity for positive change, which he said Whitfields' spirit commands. He specifically urged federal lawmakers to renew stalled efforts to pass an anti-Black hate crime bill, similar to the Anti-Asian hate crime legislation that President Biden signed into law last May."[Whitfield's] family will define her legacy, her family will remember her for the love that she instilled in them, in this community and in this world," Crump said at one point. "Her legacy will be a legacy for love, not hate."Whitfield, Jr., a former Buffalo fire commissioner, described his mother as the glue who held his family together. She loved her family unconditionally and sacrified everything for them "even when she had nothing else to give," he said. He added that his father still doesn't know about her killing."How do we tell him the love of his life — his primary caretaker, the person who kept him alive for the last eight years — how do we tell him that she's gone?" he said. "Not just that she's gone, but that she's gone at the hands of a white supremacist, of a terrorist, of an evil person who's allowed to live among us and keep perpetuating this mess. How do we tell him that?"In a Monday appearance on CBS Mornings, Whitfield said his family is still working through questions like whether he should attend the memorial service and how to care for him in the way his mother would have wanted.


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Article Link: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/109920...


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