June 28, 2021- 9:15 p.m.
One person was killed and three others, including a 15-year-old girl, were injured when shots rang out after midnight Monday in a crowded Walmart parking lot in upstate New York that police say was crowded with hundreds of people.Â
Rochester Police Capt. Frank Umbrino said officers from his department responded to the parking lot outside the Walmart SuperCenter located at 1490 Hudson Ave. after shots rang out in a crowd around 12:50 a.m. Four people were driven to Rochester General Hospital in separate vehicles.Â
An 18-year-old man was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. His death marked the 35th homicide in Rochester this year and the 12th in June, according to the Democrat & Chronicle. A 43-year-old man suffered serious injuries, Umbrino said. And two others, a 23-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.Â
Rochester police say parking lot was crowded with hundreds of people when gunshots rang out
“It’s terrible,” Umbrino told reporters following another shooting in the area, according to WHAM. “It’s another tragedy that we’re facing. Unfortunately we’ve had way too many of them…At what point in a child’s life do they learn that it’s OK to shoot somebody or to harm somebody?”
Umbrino said several hundred people and vehicles were in the parking lot at the time a fight broke out. About 20 shots rang out from multiple weapons, WHEC reported. It’s unclear whether the fight was related to the shooting – or if the gunfire came from another area in the crowd.Â
“There was at least one fight that broke out,” Umbrino said. “Simultaneous to that fight breaking out, there were multiple gunshots fired from multiple different weapons. It’s unknown if those gunshots were the result of the initial fight or if there was another altercation.”
The Walmart store was closed at the time of the shooting.
