Category: PostNews

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Two homes were on fire, Saturday morning, near Laurel and Michigan Avenue, in Buffalo. We have a crew on scene working to learn more.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Two congressmen from western New York believe the country needs to ban sales of military-grade body armor to civilians.

Republican Chris Jacobs and Democrat Brian Higgins co-sponsored a bill named after Aaron Salter, Jr. The retired Buffalo Police officer was working as a security guard the day of the shooting at Tops Market.

He could not stop the killer who was wearing body armor.

Aaron Salter’s wife confirms what Buffalo already knows: “My husband was a hero”

“The body armor that Chris speaks of is currently the grade used by the military and the police. They will continue to use that. What we’re trying to do is keep it out of the hands of the bad guys,” Representative Higgins said.

“I think it’s an idea now, that because of the situation here, will have more momentum, and I’m confident, and I’m really hoping that we can get someone to pick it up quickly in the Senate as well,” said Representative Jacobs.

The other co-sponsor of the bill, a congresswoman from New York City, had introduced it in the house earlier, but it did not pass.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The primary polls open for early voting at 9 a.m. on Saturday just 10 days before the June 28 Primary. The race for New York Governor has top billing this cycle with Congressional and State Senate primaries being pushed to August because of redistricting.

Candidates from both sides of the aisle were in Western New York, speaking with voters before the polls open. Andrew Giuliani and his father, Rudy, have been in the region since Thursday. On Friday, Democrats organized a rally for Gov. Kathy Hochul and her running mate, Lieutenant Gov. Antonio Delgado.

“They just kind of looked at us a little bit differently. Like the other part of the state. Like it doesn’t matter. I’m here to prove that this part of our state does matter,” Hochul said.

Gov. Hochul hit the campaign trail in West Seneca for a Friday evening gathering, which featured prominent Democrats from the local, state and Federal level, including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Rep. Brian Higgins, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, State Sen. Tim Kennedy, State Sen. Sean Ryan, Erie County Legislators and Buffalo Common Council Members.

Hochul says her campaign is based on values she learned in Western New York.

“When people talk about having strength, and grit, and tenacity. You know where it all came from? Growing up down the road,” Hochul added.

Lt. Gov. Delgado was also in attendance. Hochul voiced her support of his campaign for the state’s second highest office. Delgado says Hochul should be elected again and will continue to fight for New York.

“Caring for people’s welfare, for their wellbeing. Looking out for those who are less fortunate, who have struggled, who need not a hand out but a hand up,” Delgado said.

Meanwhile, Conservative Republican candidate Andrew Giuliani is in Western New York with his campaign, including his father, who is a close Trump ally and former mayor of New York City. Even though Giuliani is from downstate, he thinks he can appeal to Upstate voters.

“I am a strong Conservative and I think that’s something that many people in Western New York agree with. I worked four years for President Trump in the White House,” Giuliani added. “I’m going to make sure that every single day. I fight for our Constitution. I fight for Conservative values. And I will fight to take back the state of New York.”

Giuliani detailed his priorities if he were to become New York’s Governor. To read more about his visit, click here.

Early voters in Erie County have the opportunity to vote at several voting sites, not just their normal polling place. For a full list of early voting locations, click here.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The suspect in a deadly Buffalo shooting is in the hospital after firing at officers Friday evening.

Ferry-Fillmore officers were patrolling when they discovered a man who had been shot several times near Broadway and Sears Street, according to a Buffalo Police spokesperson.

The man was declared dead at the scene.

The suspect in the shooting took aim at the responding officers. The unnamed man fired at the officers through the patrol vehicle windshield, BPD said in a news release.

3-year-old dies after falling from building in Buffalo

Authorities went after the man on foot, ending when officers shot the suspect. The man was treated for his injuries at Erie County Medical Center.

Sources told News 4 that the suspect who had been shot by police is believed to be non-life-threatening.

The Internal Affairs Division and homicide detectives are investigating the shooting, per BPD policy.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — For the past two days, the News 4 team packed food boxes at FeedMore Western New York.

It’s part of Nexstar Media Group’s Founder’s Day of Caring.

In total, the News 4 team packed 1,518 backpacks and 504 emergency food kits.

The backpacks are part of a yearlong program where students receiving free lunch at school can also take a bag of food home each weekend.

The emergency food kits are for the emergency response distribution efforts on Buffalo’s East Side, following the mass shooting on May 14.

FeedMore has been able to distribute $3.5 million worth of food since the attack at Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue, on top of the efforts they do annually.

“This is the second year I’m doing this it’s always a good time I always enjoy coming out here and helping out at FeedMore,” said News 4 Reporter Sarah Minkewicz.

The News 4 team volunteered in the warehouse, preparing food to go directly to families.

FeedMore’s Chief Communications Officer Collin Bishop said there’s a waitlist to volunteer in the warehouse right now but there are other areas where people can pitch in including Meals on Wheels.

“Those are Monday through Friday, it’s a couple of hours you can register and take on a route that’s in the neighborhood close to where you live,” Bishop said.

FeedMore also has a community garden in which residents can visit and learn to grow their own food.

There’s also the farm market truck which drives around selling fresh produce at cheap rates.

Helping out this wonderful organization was the perfect way to spend our Founder’s Day.

“Being out in the community covering stories we see some of the issues families are dealing with especially with food insecurity so it’s nice to be able to be here to help them out and give back a little bit,” said News 4 Chief Photographer Chris Broadbent.

“People are excited, they’re having a good time, and they’re doing good in the community,” said News 4 Vice President and General Manager Joe Abouzeid.

Anyone looking to volunteer at FeedMore can sign up online or call them directly at 716-822-2002.

Kayla Green is a reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.

CITY OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) — As Buffalo prepares for Juneteenth, there are some local cities that are not officially recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday.

Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery and became a national holiday last year after a period of civil unrest and protests.

Rev. Mark Blue of the Buffalo NAACP expressed frustration that some local cities aren’t honoring Juneteenth, acknowledging that the holiday embraces diversity.

The City of Buffalo is preparing for its Juneteenth Festival over the weekend. State landmarks such as Niagara Falls are getting set to observe Juneteenth.

But, the City of Tonawanda will not officially recognize Juneteenth on Monday, instead, employees are expected to report to work, or use a personal day if they want the day off. Earlier this week, News 4 received an email from a city worker with concerns about the city not recognizing Juneteenth.

“And, this is the kind of insensitivity that people need to get away to stop doing,” said Jacob Fleming, Sr., the founder of the Niagara Falls Juneteenth Committee.

Last year, the city, through a memorandum of understanding with worker unions recognized Juneteenth as a holiday.

But that was only good for one year.

This year, under a new administration, no such agreement was put in place. City of Tonawanda Mayor John White told News 4 by phone he didn’t have time to do an interview with us.

“To have done it last year and then you knew it became a national holiday, ya’ll kind of dropped the ball when you were negotiating contracts and doing contracts,” Fleming said.

We found a similar story in neighboring North Tonawanda where again, union contracts do not honor Juneteenth as a holiday. City Mayor Austin Tylec told News 4 by phone he is open to negotiating Juneteenth as a holiday for workers before those contracts expire in a couple of years. Officials in the Tonawandas said they do understand the importance of Juneteenth.

Still, the lack of recognition, frustrating to some, as the community continues to cope with the racially-motivated mass shooting at Tops.

“We know that Black history is American history and if you give days like July 4th off and things like that and other historical days now that this has become a national holiday this day needs to be recognized,” Fleming said.

Meanwhile, the City of Buffalo and Erie County government observe Juneteenth. Ginger Schroder, a local labor attorney said local governments do not have to recognize federal and state holidays. But, it is common practice for them to do so.

BOSTON, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Erie County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help locating missing 21-year-old Michael A. Fox.

Fox, described as a white man, was last seen on June 13 just before 2 a.m. in the Town of Boston near Rice Road and Zimmerman Road.

He was driving a black 2008 Chevy Cobalt with NY Registration JLY8110, according to the ECSO.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Michael A. Fox is asked to call the Erie County Sheriff’s Dispatch at 716-858-2903.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The City of Buffalo’s annual Juneteenth parade begins at 11 a.m. Saturday near MLK Jr. Park.

The following streets will be closed between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. for the event:

Genesee Street, from Rapin Street to Walden AvenueBest Street, between Walden and Fillmore avenuesFillmore Avenue, between Best and E. Utica streets

The city said traffic congestion is expected starting at 8:30 a.m. as parade participants and floats are lined up in the area of Moselle and Genesee streets.

Juneteenth now a paid holiday for Erie County employees

The dome of Buffalo City Hall and BuffaloLIT participants will be lit up in red, black and green, the colors of the Pan-African flag, Friday through Monday in honor of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is the annual celebration of the end of slavery in the United States. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, the National Museum of African American History & Culture says not all enslaved people were not free until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce it.

Juneteenth: Honoring the men and women who paved the way to Freedom

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Minority- and women-owned businesses received some tools to use as they grow and prosper.

The Innovation Center on Ellicott Street hosted a Black Business networking event on Wednesday. Capital Connect joined other groups to help businesses make a plan for a better future.

Juneteenth now a paid holiday for Erie County employees

“How to write a business plan, they help them with their website, they help them with their credit, and some of them provide loans, they provide grants, they provide capital funding,” said Duncan Kirkwood, outreach coordinator for Capital Connect. “So businesses can go from it being your side hustle, being a hobby, to being a business that you run full-time.”

Kirkwood said small and locally-owned businesses support their communities by hiring people who live there, and that often leads to employees making life-long homes there too.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani campaigned in Buffalo Friday morning alongside his father, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Tensions between the Giulianis and reporters were high during parts of the conference, with Andrew at one point telling media at the scene, “You guys are in bed with the Democratic Party message.”

One of the first topics Andrew Giuliani addressed ahead of the June 28 primary was education. He says he wants all families in New York to have the opportunity, if they choose to, to send their children to schools outside the public education system, including private and parochial schools.

“Our kids deserve far better than they’re getting, from an education perspective,” he said.

On the topic of education, he also spoke about the Parental Rights in Education law recently signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which The Associated Press says “forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.”

How will we dispose 700k gallons of NYS sanitizer?

“I think it’s obvious that our children have been taught, I would say, hypersexualization at a very early age,” Giuliani said. “That’s something that I’m really pushing, to make sure those kids can maintain their innocence. Like I said, when I think about my daughter, I want her to have a childhood. I don’t think that at 6, 7, 8 years old, they should be taught about sex at that age. They should have innocence.”

Giuliani also discussed his inability to be on stage in a recent debate between candidates for governor, due to not being vaccinated against COVID-19.

“I believe that all of these COVID mandates, which have come down from the last two governors and the last health commissioners, should go in the ashbin of history on day one, and anybody who’s lost their job because of said COVID mandates should get their job back on day one with back pay,” he said.

Giuliani responded to a question about the new gun legislation passed in wake of the mass shooting at the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, where 10 people were killed.

“I think, very simply, if you actually, the police had the resources necessary to hold this guy, if you look at the red flag laws that were on the books at the time, this guy never should have actually had a weapon,” he said.

Giuliani says he has proposed $5 billion for “refunding of our police.”

Statements in support of former president Donald Trump came from both men, with Rudy Giuliani saying Trump “has to be re-elected at some point.”

Watch the entire conference in the video above.