Buffalo TV stations were busy trying to get crews in on a weekend to help report on the story of a white supremacist that went to a grocery store all in the effort to kill Black people.

The shooting went down at a Tops supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

TV stations called employees into work as it became clear that this was a major story.

Police say that Payton S. Gendron drove hours away from a small NY town to kill people of color. The shooter streamed his rampage on Twitch and posted a 180 page “manifesto” where he explained what he was going to do. The shooter even had gone so far as to write the N-word on the gun he would use to kill people.

In the end, 10 people were killed, and 3 were injured in the mass shooting.

Nexstar’s WIVB brought in main anchors Don Postles and Jacquie Walker to front the station’s Saturday coverage.

Scripps-owned WKBW appeared to have only a single person in their social media department updating stories. Even this morning, you click on the lead story on WKBW’s website, and the first line reads, “Buffalo police say they are on the scene of a mass shooting at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue.”

The second line reads, “The Associated Press reports at least ten people were killed. The Buffalo Police Department has a shooter in custody.”

First off, did the station have Reporters on the scene that could see that the police were there? Saying, “Buffalo police say they are on the scene…” makes it sound like you are covering the story by making a phone call.

Second, the fact that you have to use the AP for a source on a huge story happening in your own market is a bit concerning. Shouldn’t your Reporters be able to bring in that information?

One FTVLive reader that watched the coverage unfold live says that the stations suffered with “latency lag due to Live-U backpacks, vs microwave trucks, especially for Q & A with the studios.”

Watching some of the coverage, it appeared that WIVB was best with their coverage, but all the stations were solid on air.

WIVB also seemed to do the best with digital coverage, followed by WGRZ and then WKBW.

All the stations had to scramble due to the fact that they were all staffed with just a skeleton weekend staffing.

As for the shooter, he was arrested and appeared in court wearing a paper dress that looked like a toga.