Community activists call Mother’s Day weekend shootings a ‘pandemic’

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — One person is dead and others are in the hospital after a violent Mother’s Day.

Community activists say this weekend now surpasses last weekend with almost a dozen shootings.

“It’s not an epidemic, it’s a pandemic, and the only way I believe we’re going to solve it is if we come together,” founder of Uniting and Healing Through Hope of Monroe County, Clay Harris said Sunday night.

With violence in the city over Mother’s Day weekend, police almost have no words.

“One gentleman deceased, someone’s mother, someone’s child might not be going home to mom tonight, it’s just tragic,” Lt. Justin Stewart with Rochester Police said.

Gunfire started early Sunday morning. A man and a woman are recovering after being shot during two separate shootings. They happened around the same time. Officers got calls around 2:30 a.m.—one on Alphonse street near Thomas street, where they found a 36-year-old man shot. Police say they have a person of interest.

That other call was on Ferncliffe Drive near Clifford Avenue where the woman was shot.

Around noon, a 19-year-old boy was shot on Pierpont street. Police say he is in critical but stable condition. Police have a person of interest in this case as well.

“These young people, they don’t have a role model mom and dad aren’t around"

45 minutes after the call on Pierpont street Sunday, police rushed over to North Plymouth Avenue and Smith Street. Police found a man dead, lying in the middle of the road. Police say they’re still trying to identify him.

"He didn’t have any identification readily accessible, and there was no one on the scene to tell us who he was," Lt. Justin Stewart said.

Later Sunday evening around 5:45 p.m., two 22-year-old men walked into Rochester General Hospital with gunshot wounds, police linked that shooting to the Fourth Street area.

“Probation has to come together, parole has to come together, we all have to come together as a community and figure this thing out,” Harris added.

Harris went on to say he feels that community members need to start being more involved in their neighborhood churches and that it’s a good resource. Police say they don’t believe any of these shootings are connected. They’re all still under investigation.