Police release name of man shot and killed Saturday on Norton Street

UPDATE: Rochester police say 27-year-old Terry J. Howard Jr. is the name of the man who was killed on Norton Street on Saturday.

Howard was shot multiple times and died shortly after arriving at Rochester General Hospital. Police have no suspects in custody and they’re asking anyone with information about the murder to call 911.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As shootings and crime continue to rise, children are becoming collateral damage. Two kids, 7 and 8 years old watched, as a family member was murdered on Saturday night on Norton Street.

Local activists are devastated that the youngest in our community are now caught in the crossfire.

“Too many of our children, and our people, and our community members, are being killed unnecessarily, and we’re burying them,” founder of Uniting and Healing Through Hope of Monroe County, Clay Harris says.  

He says people who do awful things have some good in their hearts, and if they find it, he believes Rochester will become a better place. That it’s imperative that people committing crimes walk through church doors.

“An 8 and 7-year-old in the back of a car, presumably the guy that just got killed last night, was one of those children’s dad,” Harris said.

Over 70 homicides in Rochester this year. A 27-year-old man was shot to death and two small children watched it happen.

Police say the victim was in the passenger seat of a car that was ambushed by a gunman on Norton Street Saturday night.

“If these children and young adults, knew God and Jesus Christ, do you think they would be out here ambushing in the dark and killing and indiscriminately trying to kill children too, because God is love, get back to church.”

Those two children were in the back seat. They are ok physically, but probably not emotionally.  

This is not the first time we’ve seen gun violence with kids involved. A 4-year-old girl was shot on Selye Terrace last week after another car was shot at. Before that, a 3-year-old boy was shot in the head while sitting in a car seat during another shoot out on North Clinton Avenue.

“What is happening to the children, the trauma, the psychological damage for the rest of their life,” Harris said, clearly upset.

Harris says he believes that if criminals can find the good in themselves, it will reduce violence in Rochester.

“People’s hearts will change, they’ll love thy neighbor as thyself, those are the principles that make America the great country that it is, we have to get back to it.”