A 14-year-old girl was fatally shot and three other people were wounded in a series of shootings early Saturday as Rochester police worked to disperse large crowds along the North Clinton Avenue corridor.
Officers discovered Zahnia Barr on Morrill Street with a gunshot wound to her upper body after multiple shots were fired into a crowd of several hundred people that had formed following Puerto Rican Festival festivities, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Three additional victims — a 26-year-old man, a 38-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man — arrived at local hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds sustained in separate incidents as police dispersed disorderly groups through 3 a.m. Saturday.
Rochester police investigators believe Barr was an innocent bystander and not the intended target of the violence.
Mayor Malik Evans addressed the community following the fatal incident, describing the shooter as a coward and asserting that city officials are strictly enforcing late-night gathering restrictions to prevent further violence.
The Rochester City School District provided staff and grief counselors at Thurgood Marshall Middle School to support classmates of Barr, who was a student at Dr. Freddie Thomas Middle School.
