Mayor Evans orders business to shut down temporarily

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Mayor Malik Evans is using his Gun Violence State of Emergency to temporarily shut down a city business. The shutdown follows Monday’s drive-by shooting on St. Paul Street that left two men injured.

For now, the Roc Town Mini-Mart at 72 St. Paul St. is closed under the Mayor’s Executive Orders.

Mayor Evans said, “Lawlessness, we don’t tolerate lawlessness in our city.”

Just hours after Monday’s drive-by shooting in front of the Roc Town Mini-Mart, Evans temporarily shut down the business he says has been on the city’s radar for some time now.

“We can confidentially say that, that location was directly responsible for a lot of the nonsense that you saw, that culminated with the shooting that day, but there were other things that were happening there that we need to make sure that we address. This is unfortunate that people had to get injured, you know to get injured there. That was the unfortunate part,” said Evans.

Two men were seriously injured in the shooting and are recovering. Tuesday, Rochester Police were patrolling just steps from the mini-mart. The shooting happened directly across the street from the city’s Center for Human Services, which also houses the City’s Office of Violence Prevention. People living in the area are fed up with all the crime.

Dorothy Todd said, “I feel safe inside the building, but I don’t feel safe standing out here on the sidewalk. It’s too much violence. Too much shooting. Too much stuff going on down by the bus station.”

Patricia Morris added, “I’ve been here 21-years and I’ve never seen anything like this go on. It’s just awful.”

According to the city, the building that houses the mini-mart — which people depend on to purchase their groceries — has 21 outstanding violations, but the store itself has none.

“This was not about the violations. This was about the activities that were being detrimental to the neighborhood. It was about the activities that were happening, and again without getting into too much detail about what those activities were I can tell you that it was in the city’s best interest to make sure that that location was closed, and already today I’ve gotten tons of thank-yous from people that live in that neighborhood that are happy that that nuisance is temporarily being dealt with.” said Evans.

Rochester Police did make an arrest. They say 28-year-old Sam Lopez III, who lives in the city, drove the car as his passengers fired the shots using at least two handguns. Lopez was arraigned Tuesday morning and faces first- and second-degree assault charges.