GoFundMe for Buffalo shooting survivors hits $1 million

A GoFundMe page created for survivors of the Buffalo, N.Y., mass shooting surpassed $1 million on Thursday, three days after it was created. 

The National Compassion Fund and Tops Friendly Markets started the GoFundMe to provide financial assistance to those affected by Saturday’s supermarket shooting, which left 10 people dead and three injured.

Authorities say they are investigating the shooting as a hate crime as the gunman was found to espouse the racist “great replacement theory” and drove hours to a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black and two were white.

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia called the shooting a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime” in a press conference shortly after the incident took place. 

The GoFundMe was started on Monday and has already reached $1,043,350. The current goal is to raise $1.5 million.

“One hundred percent of the contributions donated to this fund will go directly to victims and survivors of this atrocity,” the fundraiser states.

Democratic lawmakers renewed calls for gun reform immediately after the shooting, though President Biden has acknowledged that gun control legislation is unlikely to go anywhere in Congress.

The NAACP is meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to discuss white supremacy on Friday and also released a plan with steps to combat white supremacy.