Neighbors frustrated after police break up large teen fight at Rochester’s MLK Park on Fourth of July

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester’s Fourth of July ended with police breaking up a crowd of teenagers fighting at and around Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park at Manhattan Square. This comes almost two weeks after a mass shooting there wounded six people.

Since then, people who go to MLK Park are concerned about safety. News10NBC spoke to some people who live nearby and come to the park a lot about what they want done.

One woman said she doesn’t feel safe coming here at night anymore and she’s even started carrying a knife,” Tortorello said.

Nearly two dozen officers flooded the park around 11 p.m. Thursday after they say more than 150 teens gathered there and began fighting. It took nearly an hour to clear the park. No one was hurt.

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans bumped up the park’s closure after the mass shooting, so no one was supposed to be there past 8 p.m. What happened Thursday night has neighbors frustrated.

“This is crazy to me anyway. I keep it real. And like I said, my main point is Malik needs to change his mind on how he feels about this, parents need to be responsible for their kids’ action. What your kids do. You should pay the penalty for that,” one neighbor said.

A spokeswoman for the city says they have increased police patrols in the area. Meanwhile, Captain Greg Bello of the Rochester Police Department says they will be meeting with neighbors to figure out what more can be done.

Police do have cameras around the park and that helped them with their response Thursday night.

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