At least one person is dead and several others were wounded after gunmen, who a witness described as all being under the age of 21, opened fire at a barbecue in a park in Rochester, New York, on Sunday.
Rochester police said they responded to Maplewood Park around 6:20 p.m. to a large gathering with shots fired and found several people suffering from gunshot wounds. The city around 340 miles northwest of Manhattan.
A 20-year-old man was killed, another person, a woman, suffered a life threatening injury and five people were hospitalized with minor injuries, Capt. Greg Bello said. The identity of the person who was killed has not been revealed.
‘At this point we don’t know how many people were shooting,’ Bello said. ‘We are trying to work our way through as many witnesses as we can.’
A video taken by an attendee shows dozens of people enjoying the good weather before numerous popping sounds are heard, forcing everyone to duck for cover.
At one point a voice can be heard repeatedly saying: ‘Keep pressure on it.’
The video begins by showing a large group of people enjoying the summer sun at a barbecue in the city of Rochester
The scene quickly turns to panic as multiple pops are heard, at one point a voice can be heard saying: ‘Keep pressure on it!’
In an interview with WHEC, Rochester Police Chief David Smith said that investigators are still trying to establish if the gunmen were originally part of the group or were outsiders.
‘Everyone was having a good time. There was no reason to be alarmed or think that anything was going to happen. It was a bunch of people having a picnic in the park,’ Smith told the station.
No suspects were in custody, police said while confirming that they are looking for multiple gunmen.
A woman who lives close to the park told WHEC that she thought the noises she heard were firecrackers until she saw people running from the scene.
‘I thought it was firecrackers but then when I saw people running I knew it was gunshots. As I was coming towards the front of my house, there was a young lady running towards me gasping for air, asking me to help her, help her, help her. So I lifted my trunk up, got her a bottle of water, and sat her down,’ Carla Owens Martin said.
Another neighbor described the scene as being ‘pure terror.’
‘Looking out the window, this whole park, which was full of people was then running for their lives. There were people hiding behind cars, jumping my fence, crying. It was pure terror,’ a resident told Rochester First.
Another spoke of a scene involving ‘kids with guns drawn.’
Local police looking over the scene of the shooting, a giant smoker can be seen
A neighbor telling a member of the media that she thought she heard firecrackers until she saw people running for their lives
Rochester is located around 350 miles northwest of New York City
‘We looked out the front window and there were two kids here on our front porch with guns drawn, and then it was kind of like, “Now what?”‘ resident Shelley Strong said.
Rochester’s Democratic Mayor Malik Evans, who visited the scene, said: ‘This a tragedy what happened today.’
‘The biggest tip we need is from the individuals who pulled out the guns and started shooting,’ the mayor added.
‘That’s what we need. I guarantee that with a large number of people here enjoying the summer weather this Sunday, someone here saw something. There are cameras everywhere. We just need a tip; nothing is too small.’
The Black Republican Club of Rochester also released a statement on the shooting.
‘Don’t blame race, gun control, gender, or Trump for this tragic mass shooting in Rochester, NY. It’s time to move past the usual scapegoats and address the real issues head-on.’
‘We need genuine solutions to the escalating crime in our city, not just more pandering to the black community with claims that it’s all due to Jim Crow and Trump’s policies. Let’s have an honest conversation about the root causes and how we can effectively tackle them,’ the statement read in part.
Anyone with footage or information should call 311, 911, email MajorCrimes@cityofrochester.gov, call the Major Crimes Unit at 428-7157, CrimeStoppers at 423-9300.
