Party turns deadly
2 killed, 14 wounded in troubled Rochester
Already roiled by this month’s revelation of Daniel Prude’s police suffocation death, the city of Rochester, was further traumatized Saturday when gunfire at a backyard party killed two teenagers and wounded 14 others.
“Our community has been hurting enough already,” Rochester City Council Vice President Willie Lightfoot said. “This is just another thing on top of all the things that we’ve been going through.”
The shooting that started just before 12:30 a.m. has not been linked to Prude’s death in March, the details of which first emerged nearly six months later.
But the city’s acting police chief, Mark Simmons, placed the violence that claimed the lives of a man and woman — both 19 years old who police believe were not the intended targets — in context.
“This is truly a tragedy of epic proportions,” Simmons said in a news conference held near the home. “I mean 16 victims is unheard of, and for our community, who’s right now going through so much, to have to be dealt with this tragedy, needlessly, for people who decide to act in a violent manner is unfortunate and shameful.”
Police identified the two victimsasJaquaylaYoung,agraduate of East High School, and Jarvis Alexander, a graduate of University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men, or UPrep. No arrests were announced.
“We have two innocent victims here that were attending a party with a few friends and unfortunately they lost their lives as a result because three or four individuals decided to carry handguns and pull them out and shoot at a crowd of 100 to 200 people,” police Capt. Frank Umbrino said.
The party was supposed to be a small gathering, but people from two other nearby parties went there in the early morning and an argument broke out, Umbrino said. Three or four people opened fire, and police found more than 40 bullet casings at the scene, he said.
The 14 wounded by gunfire were not believed to have lifethreatening injuries and were between the ages of 17 and 23, Umbrino said. Two more people were hurt when they were trampled while fleeing, but were expected to recover, he said.
In recent weeks, Rochester has been rocked by daily protests, allegations of a coverup and calls for the mayor’s resignation and the arrests of the officers involved in Prude’s death. Body camera video released by Prude’s family showed Rochester police officers putting a hood over the naked 41-year-old man’s head to stop him from spitting, then pushing his face into the pavement and holding him down until he stopped breathing. He was taken off life support around a week later.
Simmons has now found himself at the helm of a police department in disarray after Mayor Lovely Warren fired Police Chief La’Ron Singletary on Monday, saying Singletary had initially misled her about the circumstances of the death. Other senior police officials have announced their retirements or departures from top command positions.
Cops at shooting scene Saturday in upstate Rochester, roiled in recent weeks by outrage over the police suffocation death of Daniel Prude.
Simmons expressed frustration about the large, late-night party amid both the city’s ongoing tumult and the coronavirus pandemic.
Police were trying to piece together who opened fire and why. They asked witnesses to come forward with statements and any photos or video.
“It sounded like somebody was trying to go to war,” neighborhood resident Asa Adams told Spectrum News.
Some of the people who went to the party uninvited were believed to have attended a nearby vigil for a 20-year-old man who was shot to death near a local park, Umbrino said. It wasn’t clear if the shooting was related to the killing.