A 32-year-old woman who was the youngest of the 10 Black people killed at a Buffalo supermarket was remembered as big-hearted and quick with a laugh before her funeral Saturday.
Roberta Drury grew up in the Syracuse area and moved to Buffalo a decade ago to help tend to her brother in his fight against leukemia. She was shot to death last Saturday on a trip to buy groceries at the Tops Friendly Market targeted by the gunman. Final goodbyes for “Robbie” were set to take place Saturday morning at the stately brick Assumption Church in Syracuse, not far from where she grew up in Cicero.
Her family wrote in her obituary that she "couldn't walk a few steps without meeting a new friend.” Drury is the second shooting victim to be eulogized. A private service was held Friday for Heyward Patterson, the beloved deacon at a church near the supermarket. More funerals were scheduled throughout the coming week.
Tops were encouraging people to join its stores in a moment of silence to honor the shooting victims Saturday at 2:30 p.m., the approximate time of the attack a week earlier. And a candlelight vigil is planned at the Buffalo supermarket in the evening.