Authorities report that a gunshot occurred Saturday night outside a house party in Buffalo, New York, several streets from the store where a mass shooting occurred in 2022, killing a 14-year-old girl and injuring five other teenagers.
The incident occurred shortly after 11 p.m. in Buffalo’s East Side area, where “several hundred” adolescents had gathered for a party, according to police.
“Today is a tragic day in Buffalo.” “Overnight, six young people aged 14 to 16 were shot,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown stated on his monthly radio appearance Sunday afternoon. “A 14-year-old girl has died, while a 15-year-old male is in stable but severe condition. Fortunately, the other four injured children will recover.
There were no arrests announced as of Sunday afternoon. The Buffalo Police Department has asked anyone with information about the incident to contact investigators.
“If you were shooting and wanted to show that you had a conscience, we welcome you to come in.” Buffalo’s Chief of Detectives, William Craig Macy, made this statement during an update on the incident on Brown’s radio show.
Police are investigating if several shooters were involved, Macy said, adding that authorities discovered at least three handguns at the home party.
A series of calls from nearby homes, including noise complaints and allegations of a large gathering of youths fighting in the neighborhood, preceded the incident, according to Macy. He said officers responded to previous calls to disperse a “large, chaotic scene.”
Macy stated that cops remained on the scene for almost a half hour and removed juvenile trespassers from a nearby senior care institution. However, after officers left the area, police received calls of shots fired at 11:10 p.m., followed eight minutes later by a report of a person shot.
The victims were shot outside a private house party on Alexander Place near Jefferson Avenue, Macy said in a press conference Sunday afternoon.
Police found the 14-year-old girl mortally wounded at the scene and sent her to Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, where they pronounced her dead. Authorities did not immediately release the name of the murdered girl.
Authorities reported that an ambulance transported four youths to the Erie County Medical Center. Police reported that one of the casualties, a 15-year-old kid, was in serious condition on Sunday, while the other three injured teenagers were stable.
The gunfire grazed a 16-year-old male, but he declined medical treatment at the scene, according to authorities.
We are still investigating the motive for the shooting. However, Macy stated that police believe the fighting that broke out at the house party earlier Saturday evening caused the shooting.
Macy reported finding five shot casings on Alexander Place near the house party.
Macy also stated that authorities would like to speak with anyone who was at the event and may have witnessed the gunshots. Investigators believe “several hundred kids” were at the event when the fighting broke out, but “we have not heard from them,” Macy said.
The shooting occurred five blocks from a Tops grocery store, where a racially motivated mass shooting on May 14, 2022, killed ten black people and injured three more.