San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
POLICE: 2 DEAD, 14 WOUNDED AT PARTY IN ROCHESTER, N.Y.
Unexplained outburst of violence roils community reeling from protests
Already roiled by this month’s revelation of Daniel Prude’s police suffocation death, the city of Rochester, N.Y., was further traumatized Saturday when gunfire at a backyard party killed two people 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 — estimated to be in their late teens or early 20s and yet unidentified — 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.”
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 said police had not been aware of the party and received no complaints about noise before officers responding to class of shots fired found “approximately 100 people” running from the scene early Saturday.
He expressed frustration about the large, late-night party amid both the city’s ongoing tumult and the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is yet another tragedy where individuals are having these illegal, unsanctioned house parties taking place in these properties, which — number one — is not safe because of COVID, because of the conditions,” Simmons said. “And then you add in alcohol and violence and it just becomes a recipe for disaster.”
Police were still trying to piece together who opened fire and why. No suspects were in custody.