Photos: Police, crowds gather at scene of Tops mass killing

Cedric Holloway, the director of the Johnnie B Wiley Pavilion, was inside the community center with more than a dozen kids and teenagers when they heard gunshots at the nearby supermarket. “It scared the stink out of me,” Holloway said.

"This is pure evil, a racially motivated hate crime," said John Garcia, the Erie County Sheriff, citing certain pieces of evidence that he chose not to elaborate upon.  

Here's what we know and what we do not know about the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. 

"We are shocked and deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Tops Markets said after a shooting at its Jefferson Avenue supermarket on Saturday afternoon left 10 people dead and three wounded.

The mass murder in Buffalo's African-American community – and the 18-year-old accused of committing it – quickly came to be seen as something even larger than an unprecedented Buffalo tragedy.

Holding vigil Saturday night outside the Tops supermarket where his 86-year-old mother was one of the 10 people murdered hours earlier in the day, retired Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield found light and joy in the life Ruth Whitfield lived.

"This is not the time to tear up our own community, because our community did not do this," True Bethel Bishop and Buffalo Common Council President Darius G. Pridgen told those gathered at his church Sunday, encouraging them to grieve in a healthy way.