3 teenagers among 4 people in hospital after mass shooting on Hollenbeck Street

Police say mass shooting on Hollenbeck St. not a random attack

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Four people, three of them teenage girls, are hospitalized after a mass shooting on Hollenbeck Street near Avenue D on Monday night.

Rochester Police responded around 7:15 p.m. Officers applied tourniquets to two of the victims and all four were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The victims are all from Rochester: Three young women, ages 14 and 15, a 19-year-old woman, and a 20-year-old man. They were standing in the doorway of a home when a vehicle drove by and shots were fired by someone inside it. All of the victims were hit in the legs.

“It took a little bit to get the scene under control,” said RPD Capt. Sam Lucyshyn. “Obviously, we want to preserve human life, that’s first and foremost. But we also want to preserve the evidence. And that can take some time and, of course, we want to work with people to help solve the crime. But in a situation like this, emotions are going to be flaring. We empathize with that. This is a very challenging situation where family members are suffering.”

There are no suspects in custody at this time but police believe this was a targeted shooting. “There was some sort of dispute that led up to this, these victims or at least one of the victims was potentially targeted as part of this so, this circles back to what we talk a lot about, dispute mediation, solving our conflicts or disputes without using violence, without using firearms,” RPD Captain Greg Bello tells News10NBC.

On Tuesday, street outreach agents that work for the City’s Pathways to Peace program canvassed Hollenbeck Street to try and talk with people who may have been involved or impacted by the shooting.

Clay Harris, the founder of Uniting and Healing Through Hope of Monroe County works with teens in the City of Rochester daily to help them find ways to settle disputes that don’t involve guns. “I don’t care what gender you are alright, I’m appealing to reason…let’s not get so angry and so upset because someone said something to you that you don’t like or called you a name,” he warns.

There are more than a dozen other organizations doing similar street outreach to try and find teens and their parents or guardians that need help, “The important part for young people to understand is that death is final. You’re too young you’re just living. We will help to diffuse it, to intercede, to try to bring some normalcy to mediate between the two opposing factions,” Harris says.