Rochester Police say the mass shooting early Saturday morning began as an invite-only party...but the party grew out of control after two other parties in the neighborhood merged into the one on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Captain Frank Umbrino said an argument then broke out about 12:30 Saturday morning, and three or four people pulled out guns and started shooting. The result was two people dead and 14 wounded. Umbrino says more than 40 rounds were fired by those suspects, and according to witnesses the shooting went on for more than a minute, and the gun battle spilled out from the back to the front of the house and then up the street.
Killed were Jarvis Alexander and Jaquayla Young, both 19. Both were 2019 graduates, Alexander of U-Prep Charter School where he played football, and Young of East High where she was cheer captain. Police say neither was an intended target.
Police are still trying to find answers to the many questions raised by their investigation.
Captain Umbrino spoke for some time about the violence in Rochester neighborhoods and the conditions that led up to the mass shooting. He said he would vomit if he heard one more politician say we need more gun laws to stop the violence. He says we have gun laws on the books that we don't enforce, and that there needs to be accountability when people break the laws.