BUFFALO, N.Y. — It should have been one of the proudest days as a parent for John Persons. But 90 seconds before the president of Tops Friendly Markets was to watch his son receive his college diploma, his cellphone started buzzing with the worst news imaginable.
His company's executive vice president for operations was on the line, telling him a shooting had just occurred at their only store on the east side of Buffalo, New York. While the horrific details of the May 14 mass shooting were not immediately clear, Persons said he was told enough to prompt him to leave his son's graduation in Alfred, New York, and drive 2 1/2 hours back to Buffalo.
"It was a tough balancing act, not just that first day, but that first week, the first month and it still is a tough balancing act," Persons said.While in high school, Persons said he began working at a Tops store in a Buffalo suburb, starting as a part-time grocery cart wrangler. He grew up in the business, he said, climbing from cashier to stock boy and eventually store manager. In 2016, he was named president of the 60-year-old, 150-store company.
"We opened to a great deal of fanfare and a very warm reception. The community engaged us right away," said Persons, adding that many of the store's workers are from the local community.Payton Gendron, the 19-year-old suspect in the Buffalo mass shooting, is accused of planning for months what federal prosecutors called a racially motivated attack -- killing 10 Black people and wounding three others.
"I think the idea of this type of attack has always been present and we had protocols in place to help our store team deal with such an event and we continue to have those protocols in place," Persons said."I would tell you that even with that type of training, even with that type of awareness, I believe it's very difficult for anyone to actually deal with an event like that when it's actually happening.
"We literally did not have a seat at the table. They didn't include us," Tops employee Fragrance Harris Stanfield told ABC News, referring to herself and other Tops workers who were at the store when the shooting erupted and survived. A 27-member steering committee of mostly community leaders -- including two Tops executives and a union representative for Tops workers -- dispersed payments from the fund after setting a list of protocols.
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