After saving lives in Buffalo mass shooting, store worker opens up about trauma

"Everything's been kind of getting better," said Carlton Steverson.

ByBill Hutchinson and Alysha Webb
November 14, 2022, 6:12 AM

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- He's credited with saving lives by hiding customers and colleagues in a freezer during a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket where he works, and since the rampage Carlton Steverson said focusing on his new job as assistant deli manager helps him cope with the psychological trauma he endured.

This video profile is part of ABC News' continued reporting on the Buffalo mass shooting.

The 29-year-old Steverson, a father of four girls and a son, began working at the Tops market on the east side of Buffalo a month before an 18-year-old gunman killed 10 Black people and wounded three other victims at the store on May 14. He was one of the first employees to report back to work when the renovated market reopened on July 15.

Back in August, Steverson told ABC News he felt as if he was on "autopilot, just moving without thinking." Now, six months after the massacre, he said counseling and anti-anxiety medication have helped in his recovery.

PHOTO: Carlton Steverson visits a memorial in front of the East Buffalo Tops market where 10 Black people were killed during a racially motivated mass shooting on May 14, 2022.
Carlton Steverson visits a memorial in front of the East Buffalo Tops market where 10 Black people were killed during a racially motivated mass shooting on May 14, 2022.
Alysha Webb/ABC News

"Everything's been kind of getting better," Steverson said. "I was down at one point in time, but I've been starting to be more motivated and just trying to come to work with a positive attitude."