Man Accused Of Making Terroristic Threats At Buffalo Tops Grocery Days After A Massacre Left 10 Dead At Nearby Store
May 18 2022, Published 2:50 p.m. ET
A Buffalo, New York, man faces charges of making terroristic threats at a TOPS grocery store – the same store that was shot up by an alleged racially motivated mass killer days earlier.
On Wednesday, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced that Andrew J. Marsh, 33, was charged with making a terroristic threat and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
A day earlier, a store manager at a Tops grocery store on Elmwood Avenue asked Marsh to leave after he harassed a customer, according to prosecutors.
Marsh then made a threat with the intent to intimidate the manager and two employees, according to prosecutors. The threat referenced the shooting that happened at the Jefferson Avenue Tops market days earlier.
When police were called, they found a small amount of heroin inside Marsh’s pants, officials said.
Marsh went before a judge and while prosecutors asked he be held until a mental examination, a judge decided to release him on his own recognizance, according to prosecutors.
“This defendant is accused of threatening employees at another supermarket while we continue to investigate this horrific shooting and grieve this tragedy. Again, I remind all that any threat will be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn.
On May 14, investigators said Payton S. Gendron went into the Jefferson Avenue Tops location and shot and killed 10 people. Gendron detailed his plans and racially-based hatred in lengthy writings.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, his family blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation for his mental state before the shooting.
Three other people were injured in the shooting and FBI officials have called the targeted attack a “hate crime.”