Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Buffalo Mayor Brown Announce Establishment of May 14th Memorial Commission to Honor Victims of Buffalo Mass Shooting

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul and Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown announced the establishment of the May 14th Memorial Commission in response to the mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue earlier this year. The Commission will develop and advise on the execution of a plan to site and build a physical memorial in East Buffalo to memorialize the life and legacy of the ten Black residents of Buffalo who died in the white supremacist terror attack earlier this year.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Good morning, everyone. It's great to be home, but for this purpose, it still continues to break our hearts. I thank Mayor Brown for within days of this horrific shooting, as we were in constant in communication with each other, literally within hours when I arrived after the shooting, we thought that something had to be done to yes, help the families heal, the community heal to help rise up, but there's so many other ways we could work together. But how can we make sure that their lives, their stories, their families are remembered forever? Because this is a day in our history. It's not a positive day in our history, but it is part of the Buffalo story forever going forward. We want to do something people will remember. A place to come and reflect, a place to honor and a place to say, "Never again." I hope people will leave there with resolve in their heart that we must continue our fight to remove guns and not allow teenagers to be able to buy an AR-15, and to go across the border to Pennsylvania and to buy a high-capacity magazine and be capable of purchasing a military-style assault weapon that could slaughter our beloved family members.

So, this will have multi levels of purpose, and that is exactly what we're looking for. And it won't be designed by myself or the mayor, it'll be designed by individuals. It will be sensitive to what the families want, and that is the most important to us. It is their memorial, but it's also shared with the community. And we'll make this happen. We'll bring the resources from the state and the city, but I'm so delighted to see the number of private sector individuals and companies who are standing up and saying, "We want to be part of this as well," and we'll take that. We'll take that assistance to make sure that we get something that is profoundly reflective, and calls everyone to recommit to a different future than what befell our love beloved family ones.

So, I'm here with so many incredible local officials as well. And Mayor Brown, I can't say enough about how you show what real leadership was all about in those moments. And this community is blessed to have you as our leader for many more years to come, and we'll work together. But it is also the core of a deep friendship that is built on trust over decades of working together that we hope will continue to lift this community up as we work together. Mayor Brown, let's give him another round of applause.

We will be joined by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes. But I also want to recognize Senator Tim Kennedy who again, showed up, was there, was so committed. He and his staff just literally helping people on the ground and helping them just get through the darkest days of their lives. And we're grateful to have you as the senator, Senator Tim Kennedy. Thank you for all you've done. Reverend Mark Blue, thank you for saying yes. We call upon you to do many things because you're that kind of leader that is a quiet leader in some respects. Not always quiet, sometimes quiet, but that force, a spiritual force that needs to be brought to this experience to make sure that we meet the needs, meet the demands, meet the requirements that are called upon us when we design this memorial, and it's going to be quite an undertaking.

And those who know me, know that I always want to act with great urgency. I'm not going to put a deadline on this, but this is something I want to see move forward quickly. And I think that's what we're capable of here. The desire, the commitment is strong. And that's what we're talking about here today, how we make that happen. To all our other elected officials who have been recognized, you've all been extraordinary. Your constituents are blessed to have you, and that's something that you don't hear often, the gratitude of others, but you deserve it. And Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes has arrived, and I want to just thank her for just being there at the face of this community when they just needed someone to turn to. You consoled so many people. You gave them your love, your heart.

But also coming back to Albany, as we stood there and said, not only are we going to honor these families, we're also going to change the laws to make sure that no families ever have to endure what happened here again. And that's exactly what we did. We changed the laws. We said, as I mentioned, that the fact that an 18-year-old could buy this weapon - well, that was then, this is now. We changed that law. You have to be 21 now to be able to purchase a weapon. We're going to have stricter background checks. We have tougher red flag laws. You know what a red flag law is? It says when someone's starting to show signs that they could do harm themselves or others, we as a community, a society have a right to protect ourselves. We can engage law enforcement and a judge can give an order to go find out if that person possibly has been amassing weapons of mass destruction in their own home or other weapons. We have a right to know this. We don't have to be victims any longer. And so, we've been focused on making sure that local law enforcement and our judges and our district attorneys know the power that they have to be able to be in the prevention of crime business.

The other part was the social media. My great friend, our Attorney General, Tish James, was just here this past week. She was in response to a request I put out to her in the aftermath of the shooting. I said, "Let's find out the role of social media platforms in the dissemination of the hate crime, where a young person can be radicalized in their own home, doesn't have to go to meetings." This isn't a Ku Klux Klan meeting somewhere else, like the old days. This was basically that online, where you have people, what people with propensities or willingness to be open to these radical thoughts, and actually examine videos of other massacres and be motivated and inspired somehow. It is sick when you think about it, but it's happening every single day on social media. So, she leaned into this, and we talked to these social media platforms and the legitimate ones are with us. But what we get to continue to deal with are those on the dark web and find ways to change federal laws because right now, they have a lot of protections under federal laws. That's the barrier we face to be able to stop this from occurring on social media platforms. And I thank Attorney General James for what she's doing on all of our behaves.

So, this is going to be an opportunity, again, for the community to come together. I'm constantly in awe of what this community is capable of, it truly is. And I know this community better than most, from across the state. I say, "When you talk about East Buffalo, I know East Buffalo, I know every street." This Tops was literally 10 and a half minutes from my house. I drive through these streets. I go to the churches here. I worship here many times. I'm inspired when I come to this community, the resiliency of the people. But this community has always deserved better. And now we're able to say that, while the impetus may have been a horrific tragedy, we are not ever turning our backs on this community again. It will rise up. It'll be that shining glimmer of hope where people say, "What happened after that tragedy?" I'll tell you what happened, East Buffalo rose up and claimed a stature that has been overdue for far too long. The investment is coming. The state will help the people who need help with their houses and starting businesses, but I'm telling you, there's a message out there across the state. People, their eyes are opening up to the caliber of the people who live in this community, the great resources, the incredible history from the Underground Railroad and others. As we celebrate the struggles for civil rights throughout our history of our country, it all happened here in East Buffalo. And boy, we have a great story to tell. I want people to know that story. People are hearing it now as a result of this.

So, the better days lie in front ahead my friends. I want you to know that we are seeing a change, a radical change in attitudes. It starts in each person's heart. And when people come to this memorial, I want them to walk away saying, "Yes, I do believe in community, I believe in a stronger purpose, a higher purpose, that God wants us to use this tragedy and turn this tragedy into a better life for the people who live here now, but also who come beyond." The next generations will be the beneficiaries of the wake-up call that occurred on that day on May 14th, and we'll honor those people forever and I'm grateful to be able to represent you as Governor.

This still breaks my heart. Governors have to deal with tragedies everywhere, this is my home. This is my home. And it still hurts, and I can't imagine what it took for all of you and the families to get up out of bed today and say, "One more time. We had to be part of this gathering," and I know you have this sense of bonding together, a shared experience, a very human-shared tragedy that will define the rest of your lives forever. But to have the courage that just show up one more time today, I'm in awe of all of you. This might have been a day where you just want to stay in bed and put the covers over your head and say, "I want to just not wake up. I just wish the day wouldn't come. I just want to go back to May 13th. I want May 13th back." So, I'm inspired by your resiliency. It inspires me to go on through some tough times, because I'm from Buffalo and there's nobody tougher than us and I have that in my DNA just like all of you do. So, to my friends from Western New York,there's no stopping us now. We are moving forward, and this memorial will be a manifestation of that commitment.