Three people including 14-year-old shot in city’s central section within 24 hours

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Three people, including a 14-year-old boy, were shot in different parts of Rochester’s central section on Sunday all within 24 hours of each other.

The city’s Downtown Central Patrol District is the same district the city is considering eliminating as part of a potential reorganization plan in the police department.

A man and a woman were shot along East Avenue near Alexander Street early Sunday morning. The other shooting happened just hours ago along St. Paul Street near Main Street, involving a 14-year-old victim.

This week RPD Locust Club Officers made clear their opposition to a city plan that would do away with downtown’s Central Section Patrol.

“Current command staff is completely out of touch with what our members are facing on the street, said Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo.

On Sunday night, a 14-year-old boy was shot along St. Paul near Main Street and taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Then earlier this morning, officers responded to reports of shots or fireworks being fired in the 300 block of East Avenue, by Alexander Street around 1:30 a.m. No victims were found at the scene, but police say a male and female later arrived at local hospitals, both with lower body gunshot wounds, considered non-life threatening. Police believe they are connected to shots fired on East Avenue.

These are instances of violence that Mazzeo hopes the City will take into consideration before reorganizing.

Mazzeo said, “No other urban city, that they don’t have a downtown district specifically to the needs of that. To do this at this point in time, particularly when they are trying to enhance downtown just doesn’t make any sense.”

This year, 12 people have been shot in Rochester’s central section district, two of those shootings were fatal.

The City of Rochester has been looking at restructuring the police department for the last year due to staffing shortages and trends in violence. No plan has been finalized.

Officials at Rochester City Hall say reorganizing the police department isn’t possible by simply reallocating officers and says details about the plan will be released once the reorganization plan is finalized.