Mayor Malik Evans, Advisor Vic Saunders Work Hard to Prevent Crime after the Deadly Weekend

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The city of Rochester is no stranger to violence.

The mayor declared a Gun Violence State of Emergency in 2022. The Proclamation gives the Mayor broad powers to protect life and property and to bring the emergency under control. It has been extended at least ten times due to gun violence.

Reports from Rochester First state the first shooting was just after 1 p.m. on Friday, July 21. A man in his 30’s was shot while sitting in a car. Hours later, a 17-year-old boy was shot near Nellis Park. Then a 37-year-old woman was shot near Champlain Street. Later Friday night, a 15 and 16-year-old were both shot near Jefferson. The 15-year-old died. The violence has increased police presence in the area. RPD Lieutenant Greg Bello stated “As you can see with the police cars that are out here, there’s officers walking all over this area. It’s not just Jefferson Ave. We’re getting into surrounding streets, as well.”

Although crime is down, Bello is not celebrating. “It’s tough because if you look at our year-to-date shooting stats, our shootings, and our murders, our shootings are significantly down from last year. But at the same time when you have a weekend like we just had where we had three different people murdered in what appear to be unrelated incidents based on Friday night alone. It’s hard to go out and tout our stats as being lower when you have things like that, that are occurring.”, Bello proclaimed.

Vic Saunders is looking to stop violence before it happens. Malik's right-hand man told News10NBC that over the last few weeks, his teams have stepped up street outreach. Being out in the streets, in the community, going to the R-centers, talking to parents,” he says.

The hope is to keep kids busy by connecting them to programs in their own neighborhoods. Depending on the needs of those young people, we try and find situations that they can thrive in,” Saunders says.

But there are plenty of teens and young adults who are not thriving, who’ve had run-ins with the law, or who are already affiliated with gangs. When street teams can reach them, they connect them to programs like the Community Resource Collaborative(CRC).

The Community Resource Collaborative announced it had appointed Anthony Hall as its CEO. Hall is the former director of Pathways to Peace. Pathways to Peace is a city-funded program.

According to the website for CRC website, its mission is to uplift young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are directly and indirectly effected by all forms of violence, including gun violence, domestic violence and trafficking.

Through various collaborations across New York state and nationally, we collectively and successfully connect young people with the resources they need to be able to move through their traumatic experiences to starting personal peace by addressing housing, employment, mental health and other needed services to support basic human needs and continued personal growth and healing.

We defend and champion humankind through strong advocacy for what is right, equitable and just.