Victor Blackwell Breaks Down in Tears at Buffalo Mass Shooting Scene: ‘Have We Just Resigned That This is What We Are Going to Be?’

CNN’s Victor Blackwell broke down in tears Monday as he reported from the scene of Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

Police allege Payton Gendron, 18, killed 10 people and wounded three others at Tops Friendly Markets location in a mostly-Black part of the city.

Authorities allege Gendron specifically chose the area while he planned a killing spree to target Black victims.

He was arrested and pleaded not guilty. Since the shooting, harrowing stories have been shared about the massacre.

On Newsroom Monday afternoon, Blackwell spoke with a woman named Fragrance Stanfield, who was an employee at the store, and who survived unharmed.

At the conclusion of Blackwell’s interview with Stanfield, he tossed it back to his co-host Alisyn Camerota in the studio. She commented:

Victor, it is so hard to hear the raw grief of all of these family members and employees just trying to make sense of how their lives have been ruined in the space of a few minutes by a horrible, hateful person.

To hear Fragrance tell you she’s had to teach her children to become small and invisible in this country because you never know when you’re going to be the victim of a mass shooting.

Camerota called the situation “overwhelming.”

Blackwell became emotional as he responded. The CNN host concluded there will be a short, partisan argument over the shooting. He said what would follow would be yet another mass shooting:

Listen, I was counting in the car, talking with my producer, I’ve done 15 of these, at least the ones I can count, and we keep having the conversation about Democrats will say guns, Republicans will say mental health, and nothing will change.

And I’ll probably do another one this year. Family after family, having nowhere to go with their grief. We’ll get into a political conversation later but is this the way we’re supposed to live? Are we destined to just keep doing this, city after city? Have we just resigned that this is what we are going to be?

Overcome with emotion, Blackwell concluded, “I’m going to give it back to you.”

Watch above, via CNN.