Gun violence, fatalities reach 10-year high in Rochester

Rochester (WHAM) - Ten months into the year, 31 people have been shot and killed in the City of Rochester, the highest number of gun-related deaths since at least 2010.

In total, 275 people have been victims of gun violence this year - also a record since at least 2010, which is when information on the Rochester Open Data Portal dates back to.

Driving up those figures? The mass shooting on Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this year in which 16 people were shot, two fatally.

The most recent fatal shooting happened on Frost Avenue on Tuesday, just two blocks from Rochester City Councilman Willie Lightfoot's barber shop on Jefferson Avenue.

"This is becoming the norm," said Lightfoot. "Not becoming. It is! It’s not uncommon for me to be in my barbershop and hear gunshots."

Irshad Altheimer, the director of the Rochester Institute of Technology's Center for Public Safety Initiatives, tracks violent crime and works with police departments, including RPD, to prevent it.

There are several factors driving the city's highest level of gun violence in a decade, Altheimer said.

"We’ve had so many things kind of happen simultaneously. It's very difficult to disentangle the effects, or isolate the effect of particular things," said Altheimer on what could to be blame for the rise in shootings.

He says shootings nationally and locally have risen, but are not close to the highest levels recorded in the 1990s.

"I think COVID has really realtered, restructured our interactions in society. I think it’s contributed to a lot of anxieties," said Altheimer.

Social issues, paired with economic issues related to the pandemic, have helped fuel anxiety, too, he said.

"The whole restructuring of society, the weakening of social support systems on top of civil unrest, has contributed in ways we don’t understand, but probably has contributed to the violence," he added.

Rochester Police Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo says the year has been tiresome for officers who have been dealing with the rise in gun violence and protests over the death of Daniel Prude.

"I hear words like ‘uptick.' I’d say, 'a surge in violence,'" said Mazzeo.

Mazzeo says it's up to Rochester City Hall and RPD's new administration to reverse course.

"We allowed this to get this point over several months. We’re not going to get rid of it in a couple days or a couple weeks," he added.

City officials tell 13WHAM that city leaders have met with RPD and are going to announce new plans to combat violence on Friday.

"We have to better. We can’t say, 'OK it’s happening everywhere and we should ignore it.' No we cannot ignore it," said Lightfoot.

Data for the last 10 years on shooting victims and gun-related fatalities per the RPD Open Data Portal:

• 2010- 175 victims, 25 fatalities
• 2011- 145 victims, 14 fatalities
• 2012- 218 victims, 28 fatalities
• 2013- 224 victims, 28 fatalities
• 2014-187 victims, 23 fatalities
• 2015- 220 victims, 25 fatalities
• 2016- 178 victims, 25 fatalities
• 2017- 178 victims, 14 fatalities
• 2018- 154 victims, 19 fatalities
• 2019- 172 victims, 22 fatalities
• 2020, as of Oct. 29- 275 victims, 31 fatalities