ROCHESTER, N.Y. — News10NBC is investigating the drop in homicides in Rochester and finds the trend spans the Thruway upstate.
Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean set out to find out why homicides are down in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse. There’s no silver bullet that stops the bullets, but experts can pinpoint two things: getting young people things to do, like jobs, and arresting the small percentage of people who do most of the crime.
A balloon launch was held for Zah’nia Barr last week. She was 14 and was gunned down in a crowd.
READ MORE: ‘She had a future and it was taken’: Family and friends release balloons for 14-year-old Zah’nia Barr, shot and killed in Rochester
“Once I got to her house, I seen detectives in which my heart dropped because I basically already knew that that was my daughter,” Chazeman Allen Sr. said.
Zah’nia is one of nine people murdered in Rochester this year. In 2021, the city had one homicide every four days. Now it’s one every 24 days.
This year, RPD has seized more guns and arrested more people with guns than all of last year.
“So if we’re taking that small population off the streets and we’re taking the guns they use off the streets then obviously our shooting numbers are going to be down,” Frank Umbrino said.
Umbrino is a major crimes officer with RPD. The department has a special unit that investigates shootings where the victims survive. It’s arrested 60 people this year.
Berkeley: “Do you think that contributes to the drop in murders?”
“I think it certainly helps,” Brian Marone said.
Marone is with RPD’s Criminal Investigations Non-Fatal Shooting Unit. The trend is happening along the Thruway. In Syracuse, there was one homicide every 12 days in 2021. Now, one every 24 days. In Buffalo, one homicide every five days in 2021. Today, one every 31 days.
The fix is more than police work.
“Well to be honest with you, it’s a collaboration,” Billie Webster said.
Webster’s son was murdered in Buffalo. Now he runs Back to Basics Ministries. They look for kids at risk and get them jobs.
“They go to school and then they go back to work again after school. And that pulls them off the streets,” Webster said.
Rochester has 800 paid summer jobs for people 14 to 20. The police jailed more than 100 people for homicide in the last two years.
Berkeley: “And what you’re suggesting is that they might be likely to do it again, if they were out there.”
“There’s a couple of people we locked up in the last several years that have been responsible for two or three murders that we could prove. God knows how many other murders they’re responsible for,” Umbrino said.
There are still no arrests in the killing of Zah’nia. Hers is one of six homicide cases still open this year.
News10NBC Investigates: Homicides down in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse: Here’s what experts say is working WHEC.com.
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