Shaq the basketball legend is donating $50 thousand to the family of Aaron Salter Jr., a hero who died in the Buffalo shooting in May.
Shaquille O’Neal, 50, is one of the biggest men, and biggest hearts, in sports. Seven-foot-one and with an estimated net worth of $400 million, he likes to spread his money around. His charitable organization, the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, teams up with Boys & Girls Clubs and Communities in Schools to get resources to underserved youth. He personally paid for a man’s engagement ring just because he overheard him worrying about his credit while waiting in line. He raised $1 million for charity with an NFT in 2021. He bought furniture for a woman whose house burned down near his own. He donated a house in Atlanta to the family of a boy paralyzed in a school shooting.
Aaron Salter Jr. was working security to supplement his police force pension on May 14, at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo’s East Side neighborhood. When 18-year-old Payton Gendron entered the store and started shooting Salter engaged him and shot back, trying to protect the people fleeing the store. But Gendron’s body armor decided the exchange – he shot and killed Salter, while none of Salter’s shots injured Gendron.
While Gendron has plead not-guilty to hate crime and domestic terrorism charges, the facts are that a white man drove three hours to a black-majority neighborhood he had no connection to, to shoot mostly black people while livestreaming his deadly rampage on a racism-filled webpage.
Shaq performed in downtown Buffalo on Friday June 24th as a DJ, alongside his band Shaq’s Bass All-Stars. He made $50 thousand for the three-hour gig, all of which he donated to Salter’s family. Salter left behind three children, the youngest the same age as his killer, and a wife.
Photo: lev radin / Shutterstock