Manhunt for mass shooting ‘cowards’ underway in Rochester

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Manhunt for mass ********* ‘cowards’ underway in Rochester

This was different.

Yes, there have been *******, violent *******, at some other gatherings in city parks. The June ********* at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park left six wounded. But that was in the morning’s early hours, shortly before 3 a.m.

Sunday’s mass ********* in Rochester erupted around 6:20 p.m. Many dozens, possibly between 100 and 200 people by some estimates, had spent the hours before barbecuing, chatting, playing games. There were children, infants, grandparents.

Now two are ***** — 25-year-old Tyasia Manning and 34-year-old Phylicia Council — and five others injured. They are expected to survive their wounds. The police are searching for the killers and say many people have already provided information.

At a news conference Monday, Mayor Malik Evans said he’d been to similar events over the weekend, cookouts where people gathered for fellowship and friendship.

“Our people, our residents should be able to enjoy summer in a park, *******,” he said. The killers, Evans said, are “cowards” and he said he’s taken aback by the growing number of female victims with *********.

After a stretch of violent ****** that shattered previous records for bloodshed and homicides, the City of Rochester, like much of the rest of the country, is now seeing declines in ****** rates and returns to pre-pandemic levels. The mass ********* on Sunday seemed to shatter what residents and officials hoped was a trajectory toward less ********* and more peace.

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Rochester Police Chief David Smith asks for the public’s help to identify the person fired a **** at the gathering in Maplewood Park during a press conference at the Public Safety Building.

“We had in Rochester a weekend full of *********,” said Police Chief David Smith. Arson and firefighting investigators are also investigating a ***** on Portland Avenue that has left a 5-year-old boy fighting for his life. Two firefighters were also injured.

Said Evans, “A decrease in ****** is not enough, especially when we’re burying our young people.”

What happened at Maplewood Park in Rochester NY?data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

Rochester police use a metal detector to find bullet casings in Maplewood Park in Rochester, NY, Monday morning, July 29, 2024. Tyasia Manning, 25, and Phylicia Council, 34, received fatal gunshot wounds that also injured five others after multiple gunshots were fired at a gathering in Maplewood Park yesterday.

The barbecue at Maplewood Park, a site known for the splendor of its rose garden and its views of the north-flowing Genesee River, was advertised by flyers as a chance for a community get-together. Organizers did not seek permits from the city, but there were no signs of tension or strife in the hours before the *********, Smith said.

Instead, there’d been calls about some cars parked on grassy areas, but peace, enjoyment and civility appeared to be the norm throughout the early hours of the event, which started around 1 p.m.

There’d been no indications of problems “until what happened happened,” Smith said.

Online social media videos show the chaos that overwhelmed the crowds when gunfire burst out. Some at first thought firecrackers, but it became apparent, as the crowd scrambled for safety, that the outbursts were far worse.

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Rochester police technicians walk through the ****** scene in Maplewood Park in Rochester, NY on July 29, 2024. Tyasia Manning, 25, and Phylicia Council, 34, received fatal gunshot wounds that also injured five others after multiple gunshots were fired at a gathering in Maplewood Park yesterday.

Some individuals tried to help those struck by gunfire. Multiple police agencies — Rochester, Irondequoit and New York State Police — rushed to the growing mayhem.

Police Monday provided little information about whether they have any information about what sparked the gunfire. With so many people present, it’s a certainty some know who the shooters were, Smith said.

“There are hundreds of people who have potential information to help us solve this ******,” he said.

Already, residents are providing videos and tips, he said.

Anyone with information can call the city police major ******* unit at (585) 428-7157 or email at *****@*****.tld.

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Rochester Mayor Malik Evans asks for the community to send in any tips from the ********* yesterday at Maplewood Park.

Rochester city offices lowered the flags to half-mast because of the ********* of Manning, who worked with children and teens at a summer city recreation program at the Carter Street R-Center.

On Monday, the city brought in support staff for workers and for children who knew Manning, described as effervescent and outgoing by some of those who knew her.

“Many of the kids called her ‘Mama Bear,’ ” said Shirley J.A. Green, the city’s commissioner of parks, recreation and human services.

Turbo Lewis, a friend of both women, said Council and Manning were spirited and fun-loving people.

“They were just beautiful females who didn’t deserve no type of pain or no type of hurt,” he said. “Anything we do that’s positive can be ruined by *********.”

Evans Monday said that those who were wounded will have their own traumas. “It’s important to say that these are life-altering injuries,” he said.

Major ******* investigators with the city police have worked around the clock since the *********, Evans said.

Evans also implored residents to help the search for the killers. “The next 12 to 24 hours is absolutely critical,” he said.

“No piece of evidence is too small for us to be able to work to solve these *******,” he said.

(Staff reporter Justin Murphy contributed to this story.)

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

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