Mayor Evans addresses violence in Rochester

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Mayor Malik Evans is fired up about city violence. He said Monday he feels Rochester has a narrative that doesn’t accurately represent the city.

Over Holy Weekend, a house was struck by bullets on Murray Street, there was a double shooting after a fight on Plymouth Avenue, a shooting on Lang Street that left a man in critical condition, a shooting that happened in broad daylight on Cady Street, a shooting and a stabbing early Easter morning and a double shooting on Easter on Clifford Avenue.

Mayor Evans said the violence is happening in certain areas, it’s not widespread, and other cities across the nation are facing the same problems.

News10NBC Reporter Stephanie Duprey asked Evans about the challenge of encouraging people to come into the city for events, like the Summer Soul Festival, which is being planned for August. The mayor said looking at the shootings, they seem to be happening in the same neighborhoods.

"One-hundred percent of our shootings that happen probably happen on around 11% of our streets so that means they are confined to a particular area," Evans said. "It’s not widespread, it’s usually individuals who are known to each other individuals that know people, so let me be clear again, and I don’t want that narrative out there that you come into the city, it’s somehow dangerous, the city is not dangerous, it’s challenged just like any other urban city but you are safe in the City of Rochester."

So far, RPD’s Open Data Portal shows that there have been no shootings in the city’s southeast quadrant this year, but in 2021, there were a few shootings in the southeast quadrant, particularly in the area of Monroe Avenue, with one shooting happening on Boardman Street in October 2021 and a triple shooting on Monroe Avenue near Meigs Street where one of the victims died back in April of 2021. There was another triple shooting on Monroe Avenue in December 2021.

When Duprey spoke to police as she was covering the violence over the weekend, they told her that it has been difficult for them to get the help they need from the community to solve crimes, mainly because people say they are afraid of retaliation.

Evans also said Monday that city neighbors need to change the "culture" and get help from police, not to take things into their own hands using "street justice".