Buffalo Mayor Leads Movement To Heal, Support Community Members After Clinic Shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - The mayor of Buffalo is working to provide resources to people in the community to help deal with the tragedy of the fatal shooting at the town's health clinic on Tuesday.

Mayor Teri Lachermeier says she is proud of how the community has responded, helping those most impacted by the shooting. She recorded a message to let residents know they are "Buffalo strong," and that they are not alone.

Buffalo is a community that "people who come here live here, stay here, raise their kids here, their kids come back here," said Lachermeier. It's a city with great strength, she said, which was challenged during six minutes of horror inside the Allina clinic.

"This is our home, this is our family. This happened to people we love," said Lachermeier.

Her first reaction was to help those who need it and who are hurting. Then she realized the entire community needs comforting.

"That's what happens when you are part of a family, is you feel their pain," she said.

So she gathered members of the chamber of commerce, the faith, and law enforcement communities, as well as supporters of Buffalo to design a way to help make sure this town has what it needs to get through the aftermath of Tuesday's events. Together, they came up with the themes "care, connect, and continue."

"The 'care' is based on the resources you might need. The 'continue' is the ongoing conversation, ongoing education, the ongoing things that we're going to need in our community in the days ahead, but of the three, the most important is 'connect,' said Pastor Greg Braly, of Evangelical Free Church.

The resources can be found on the website, which is a hub that helps connect neighbors.

"We're going to put things in place that will make sure that when people need the kind of help they need, they know where to go and they know who to reach out to," said Lachermeier.

One of the focal points of the project centers on mental health. Not only will there be resources for the children who were in class nearby the clinic and might need help processing what they heard, there is also help for the average citizen who is not sure what they are feeling.

"We're all feeling the ripple effect of the pain that happened to us, but we don't want it to define us," said the mayor.

The community will move forward -- united. Focusing on caring, connecting, and continued support.

Lachermeier's message will be released on the City of Buffalo's Facebook page as well as on local cable access on Friday.

Allina Health has also set up a "Caring for Caregivers" donation page for the families involved.