Woman killed, 4 men wounded in latest Buffalo street party violence

Saturday's quintuple shooting in Buffalo happened as Rochester police were investigating a mass shooting at a backyard party in that city that left two people dead and 14 more wounded. Buffalo, like many cities across the country, has seen a dramatic rise in shootings this year. By mid-August, more people had been shot in Buffalo as were shot in all of 2019, according to police records.

Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said the Saturday shooting in Buffalo appeared to be another case of a "pop-up party," arranged on social media, that led to trouble.

“This is a problem we’ve been facing all summer long, and our officers are constantly breaking up pop-up parties that occur all over the city," Gramaglia said in an interview. "It’s hard to keep up with them. We break them up and they just go form somewhere else.”

Buffalo police dispersed a large group bent on partying from two locations early Saturday, but the party turned violent at its third stop at about 3 a.m., police said.

Police said a 23-year-old woman from Cheektowaga was killed. Four men from Buffalo were also shot. One of them, identified as a 25-year-old man, was in critical condition at Erie County Medical Center. There was also a 21-year-old man in fair condition and a 23-year-old man being treated for non-life threatening injuries at ECMC.  A 37-year-old man was treated and released from the hospital.

Police have not released the names of the victims.

“These parties are occurring because of the pandemic, because there’s no entertainment, you can’t go to bars. There’s nothing else to do," Gramaglia said. "And then people are gathering and they’re having street parties, and it’s a big strain on our police department."

Gramaglia said the department for years has seen shootings and homicides where the motives are “social media beefs.” The department, he said, has been aggressively using social media and a notification program to try to intervene.

"Some of the locations that we know are going to occur, we’ll get police cars there ahead of time. We’ll prevent it before it starts," Gramaglia said.

Murray Holman of the Stop the Violence Coaltion said a frequent scenario for violence is when a person learns that an enemy is at a particular party and triggers a confrontation.

“They use a gun and they don’t care who they hit at the party," Holman said. "It’s not to say that all parties go down like this, it’s just parties of youth involvement with no supervision. That’s what we’ve been dealing with here in Buffalo."

Police responded to the Saturday call about the shooting at Glenwood and Jefferson just after 3 a.m. DeGeorge called it a "street party gathering."

One person was pronounced dead at the scene. The wounded were taken to local hospitals. 

Gramaglia said the group of people were traveling after officers dispersed a party in one unidentified location. The group, Gramaglia said, went to a parking lot at a convenience store on East Ferry Street at Jefferson.

"We’re hearing that our officers were able to disperse them from there. Then they went over to Glenwood and Jefferson and that’s where the shooting occurred," Gramaglia said.

The shooting scene was three blocks south of the convenience store.

The Saturday shooting followed two shootings early Wednesday, one on Titus Street and one on Ashley Street. One person was killed at each, with two others wounded on Titus and one wounded on Ashley.

An even worse party shooting occurred early Saturday in Rochester, where two people were killed and 14 wounded about 12:25 a.m. at what police said was a backyard house party on Pennsylvania Avenue near Short Street. Police said all the wounded were ages 17 to 23 and none had a life-threatening injury.

"This is happening not just here in Buffalo but across the nation, people have been shot at these parties. The trend is starting to pick up," Holman said.

Buffalo police monitor social media to find out about parties, Gramaglia said.

Holman said he believes police are leery of intervening in parties because of recent protests over police brutality.

"They fear they might get into a situation, baited into a situation,” Holman said.

Gramaglia disagreed with Holman's view.

"It’s a constant chasing. But our officers have continually broken up these parties. They are going in and they are breaking the parties up. They’re not standing back from these at all," the deputy commissioner said.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call or text the Buffalo Police confidential tip line at 716-847-2255.

“Our detectives and officers are out canvassing for any video. We ask people, if they have any video surveillance in and around those areas to please check their cameras and call police and let us know if you have video," Gramaglia said. "Everything and anything helps. We’ve said this many times before: the police cannot solve these problems alone. They cannot solve these crimes alone. We need the community’s input. We have to work together. If people are looking for a safer community, we have to do it together.”