Midway through 2023, shootings in Rochester are down nearly 26% from the same time last year, according to publicly available data from the city’s police department.
Data shows that 123 people were shot in the city between January 1 and July 1 this year. In 2022, RPD reported 166 gunshot victims during this period.
Homicides are also down. The city has suffered 23 murders so far this year – not all of them the result of shootings – compared to 35 in the first six months of 2022.
These figures do not include a string of shootings that occurred moments apart during the July 4 holiday. Seven people were shot in six separate incidents over a two-hour period Tuesday night in Rochester. None of those shootings ended in deaths, police said.
But former Pathways to Peace director Anthony Hall called the outbreak of shootings an “anomaly” in a year when gun violence in the city has been trending down.
Hall, who previously led the team of street mediators in Rochester, said while he acknowledges July 4 was a difficult night for the community, what happened then should not overshadow ongoing efforts. and successful that curbed the shootings and murders in the city.
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“It’s not a party, but we have to aim for a more positive outcome than the negative,” Hall said.
The Rochester shootings were just a handful of hundreds of gunshot wounds that took place around Independence Day across the country, including in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas and more.
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The latest data represents an increase in violent crime in Rochester since the start of the year, when city officials announced a 50% decrease in shootings and homicides in the first quarter of 2023, which ended March 31. .
Lt. Greg Bello said seasonal changes in gun violence in Rochester are typical. Warmer weather leads to an increase in shootings, while violence tends to drop in colder months, Bello said.
And he said the rate at which violence is increasing this summer is still lower than in previous years, indicating some improvement.
“Although we cannot predict shootings and homicides, we continue to be significantly below previous years and hope to continue the downward trend,” Bello said.
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Last year ended with 351 gunshot victims and 76 total homicides.
Bello said an increased partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has allowed police to more effectively target violent gun offenders and remove illegal weapons from city streets.
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Hall said more funds were needed to help grassroots community organizations tackle the problem by meeting basic needs, such as access to jobs, food and mental health counselling.
“Violence is a disease. Violence is a public health crisis. The (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has deemed it that,” Hall said, then listed a number of Rochester zip codes with high levels of poverty. “These areas reflect where the violence is taking place. This is no coincidence. The CDC has determined that poverty is the primary indicator that violence will occur.”
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Hall, along with other anti-violence advocates, travels weekly through Rochester neighborhoods to raise awareness and visibility of available community resources.
“It’s about making sure that people affected by the violence — whether they’re the perpetrator, the victim, the aggressor, or just nearby — have access to it,” Hall said.
Kayla Canne reports on community justice and safety efforts for the Democrat and the Chronicle. Contact us at kcanne@gannett.com or on Twitter @kaylacanne.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester NY shootings and violence stats drop in 2023