Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Buffalo Saturday to attend the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, who was among the 10 victims of this month’s grocery store massacre.
The 86-year-old was fatally shot at Tops Friendly Markets on the afternoon of May 14 after visiting her husband of 68 years at a nearby nursing home.
The White House said Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff also will “meet and offer condolences to the families of other victims.”
It’s unclear if Harris will speak at Whitfield’s funeral.
Suspect Payton Gendron, 18, allegedly slaughtered shoppers with a legally purchased AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after posting a white supremacist manifesto online. All 10 of the deceased victims were black.
Harris will visit Buffalo a day before Biden visits Uvalde, Texas, to meet with the families of 19 kids and two adults killed Tuesday at an elementary school. Gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, also died after using a legally purchased AR-15-style rifle to commit the crime.
Biden visited Buffalo last week and laid flowers outside the grocery store three days after the massacre.
Biden and Harris have called for new gun control laws this week, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the administration would “leave the mechanics” of crafting a bill to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
