Benny the Butcher was in disbelief when he found out about the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people and injured several others in his hometown of Buffalo.
“Can’t believe a mass shooting happened in my city pray for Buffalo,” he tweeted on Saturday (May 14).
On Sunday, Benny took to Twitter again to announce that he plans to take an active approach regarding the tragic situation.
“I’m a real community leader ion kno what y’all think…we gon be front line in the face of this tragedy,” he tweeted.
I’m a real community leader ion kno what y’all think…we gon be front line in the face of this tragedy
— BENNY THE BUTCHER (@BennyBsf) May 15, 2022
While it’s unclear, at the moment, what Benny is planning to do for those affected by the shooting in Buffalo, the Griselda rapper did mention on his IG Stories that the incident at Tops Friendly Market hit close to home.
“We got homeboys who lost their parents, their moms,” he said. “This ain’t no joke. Y’all talking about what Griselda gon’ do? We gon’ hold it down like our community held us down.”
”What y’all people got to realize is we live in this community — still in Buffalo. We gon’ always stand behind the community,” he continued. “Stop taking this opportunity to antagonize the people that’s here that’s doing better than ya’ll.”
The Pyrex Picasso emcee went on to say that he will do “anything” that his community needs him to do. And made sure to reiterate that he’s already been doing it and he doesn’t give back just to gain approval.
Ahead of the release of his Tana Talk 4 album last month, the Butcher gave away 500 free subs to the Buffalo community, including frontline workers at Marco’s Italian Deli. But this situation is different, locals are grieving and many are looking for answers.
“People always saying like ‘yo we want to hear what you got to say about it?’ Why y’all want to hear what I got to say? I’mma doer, I’mma action person,” Benny said via IG. “Stop dick eating these rapppers and these athletes and everybody else that’s in a better position than y’all ‘cause you want them to say something because all they gon’ do is say something. They do no real action.
”They just get on twitter, they get on their social media shit and they say something and ya’ll eat that up because thats all y’all want. Ya’ll want to be dick eating and commenting on a nigga’s shit when he speak on something. No, this is a real tragedy and this is a real thing and it’s my fucking city and we gon stand behind it.”
In a news release, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announced that the 18-year-old white man suspected of the shooting is Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, New York. He has been charged with one count of murder in the first degree. If convicted of the charge, Gendron faces maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Check out Benny’s tweet below:
Can’t believe a mass shooting happened in my city 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 pray for Buffalo
— BENNY THE BUTCHER (@BennyBsf) May 14, 2022