Celebrities
Breanna Robinson
May 16, 2022
Video
Justin Bieber called out fans at his Buffalo, New York concert who couldn’t keep quiet during a tribute to the supermarket mass shooting victims.
Hours after 10 people were killed in what authorities described as a “racially motived violent extremism” in a predominately Black neighbourhood, the “Peaches” singer took to the stage on Saturday and asked the crowd at KeyBank Center to help him pay their respects to the slain individuals.
“As you know, there’s been tragedy in the city, but what we’re gonna do tonight is we’re gonna honour those people, and I would love if we could just take a moment of silence. That would mean a lot to me,” Bieber said in a video clip he uploaded to his Instagram clip.
Although many fans were respectful of the moment, a few of them could be heard rudely shouting or screaming. As a result, the singer expressed his concerns about this in a brief message.
“To the people who couldn’t stay silent to honor the lives that were so tragically lost, I urge you to ask yourself why?” he wrote.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Bieber also mentioned or alluded to the massacre on numerous occasions at the concert and even posted more of those moments on his Instagram.
As we know, there’s so much division in this world, so much racial injustice,” Bieber said during the concert.
“And as you and I both know, racism is evil, and it is diabolical. But what you and I get to do is we get to be the difference makers. We get to be the people who continue to have the conversations with our friends and our family and our loved ones.”
On Saturday, Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old man who was wearing military gear, has been identifed as the shooter who opened fire with a rifle at a Tops Market, which resulted in the murders of 10 people and wounding three others.
Police noted that Gendron shot 11 Black victims and two white victims before surrendering to officials. Later on, he appeared before a judge in a paper medical gown and was arraigned on the murder charges.
“This is the worst nightmare that any community can face. We are hurting, and we are seething,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown during a press conference on Saturday evening.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
The Conversation (0)
x