BUFFALO, N.Y. — Among the three people who survived after being injured during Saturday's mass shooting: a 20-year-old Tops employee who was just trying to do his job.  

Zeneta Everhart doesn’t know how her son, Zaire Goodman, survived — but she feels blessed he’s still here with her. 

"He’s a miracle,” she said. “He shouldn’t be here.”

Goodman was working Saturday afternoon at Tops Friendly Markets on Jefferson Avenue when the unthinkable happened.

"Zaire called me. And he said, ‘mom, mom, mom, mom. Get here now, get here now. I got shot,'" she said.

He told Everhart he was helping a woman in the parking lot when the gunman got out of his car and shot both of them. The woman was killed. Zaire dropped to the ground, then once the shooter went inside, he ran away with another employee and called his mom. 

"It’s your worst nightmare as a mother,” she said. “No mother wants to hear that. I mean, I don’t want to hear that he broke an arm. I don’t ever want him to be hurt. As a mother … your number one job is to protect your child. And I couldn’t be there that day to protect him.”

A bullet went through Goodman’s lower neck and out his back. Somehow the damage was minimal: no surgery — not even any stitches. 

"The universe spun a little bit stronger for my child that day,” said Everhart. “I don’t know what divine being was out there watching over him, but I’m grateful."

Goodman came home from the hospital later that night. According to his mother, he’s handled the traumatic nature of what happened with strength, more concerned with the other victims and his fellow employees than himself.

"He needs to process this,” she said. “We have conversations and it’s fine if he acts like he is. I know that there’s going to be a long road to recovery for this.”

After this ordeal, Goodman, who is on the autism spectrum, is thinking about going back to Villa Maria College for creative writing. 

"He’s going to figure out why his life was spared,” said Everhart. “That’s what he’s going to do right now with his life. And he’s going to find his purpose and live that purpose because there are other people today who can’t do that. And he knows that he he’s blessed." 

Everhart is a former colleague of ours at Spectrum News 1. She currently works as the director of diversity and inclusion for state Sen. Tim Kennedy. She says much more needs to be done to teach children about racism and loving one another at a young age to root out the hate that leads to tragedies like this one. 

She's left with feelings of grief and anger, not only for what happened to her son, but to her East Side community at the hands of who she calls a “terrorist.” 

"My heart will never soften for him,” she said. “There will never be a moment of forgiveness. Ever. You came into my home and you tried to destroy us, but you won’t win.”