Police Say Victims Of Rochester Shooting Not Intended Targets

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2020) Rochester police have identified two victims of the Saturday shooting in the city, but they were not the intended targets, Capt. Frank Umbrino said.

"We have innocent victims that were attending a party with a few friends and unfortunately they lost their lives as a result," Umbrino told reporters late on Saturday, as quoted by The Democrat and Chronicle daily newspaper.

According to Umbrino, two 19-year-old Rochester Central school District graduates were identified as the victims of the shooting. Over a dozen other people, aged 17 to 23, were injured.

Umbrino said "three or four" people engaged in a gunfight at a house party in Rochester, in the US state of New York, early on Saturday morning.

Acting Rochester Police Chief Mark Simmons said on Saturday that the shooting left two people killed and 14 others injured. According to Simmons, the shooting occurred at a large party with more than 100 people in attendance.

An investigation is underway, but no suspects are in custody.

Rochester has seen ongoing Black Lives Matter protests this month, held in connection with the death of Daniel Prude, an African-American man, who died after police restrained him, placing a spit bag over his head and handcuffing him when they were responding to a 911 call back in March (Prude was in a mental health crisis and was running naked in the street). According to Prude's family, he died of asphyxiation on March 30.