Rochester Police have released more details about the mass shooting on Genesee Street on August 19th, including the name of the alleged shooter. He is 21 year old Johnny Blackshell Jr. of Chili.
The charge against Blackshell has now been upgraded to first degree murder in the deaths of three people in front of the Boys and Girls Club, 19 year old Raekwon Manigault, 17 year old Jonah Barley and 25 year old Johnny Johnson. Four others were wounded.
U.S. Attorney for Western New York William Hochul says it's believed Blackshell was associated with a gang called the "Maroon Goons."
"If you're a member of a gang sometimes law enforcement says you better get out ; my message to you is it's too late. You're going to be targeted, and as the district attorney said, you're going to be prosecuted, caught and sent to jail for a very long time ."
Blackshell was on parole when he was arrested less than a week after the killings. Police also say Blackshell is accused of shooting the victims with an AK-47 rifle.
Mayor Lovely Warren says she'll push for funding for a more robust gun buyback program.
Ciminelli says while gun buybacks have varying levels of effectiveness, it can have some impact.
"Most of our guns that are used in crimes were in possession of legal gun owners so, what we want to do is, I would just look at this as one tool among many. We've had gun buybacks here in the last few years where we've taken in well over 200 guns and those are 200 guns that are not going to be stolen or otherwise end up in the streets."
Warren wants to have a summit of the mayors of the state's largest cities to talk about ways to combat violent crime, particularly illegal guns.
"What we are going to do is sit down and talk about some best practices. We recognize that in some cities they are trying some new and innovative things and we want to talk about that, see if we could get more state support for that through funding,” the mayor told reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Right now, Blackshell is facing one count of first degree murder, even though he's accused of killing three people. But Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley says eventually, there could be more charges.
"At this time the murder in the first degree 'accusatory' just includes all three victims as part of the 'murder one' charge , but as I said, once the case goes to grand jury, the grand jury can consider additional murder charges and additional charges for the surviving victims and weapons charges as well, " Doorley explained.
Ciminelli says additional charges and arrests are possible.
