Buffalo Police Commissioner Speaks Out After Busy Holiday Weekend

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Fourth of July weekend in Buffalo is now marked by a different kind of red, white and blue,

Buffalo police responded to four separate shootings early Sunday morning that left five people injured. No one was killed.

Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia spoke to 2 On Your Side Monday afternoon for the first time since the incidents.

“On the third, fourth and fifth days, there were no shootings,” he said. “On the night of the sixth, unfortunately, there were several street parties that resulted in shootings.”

It all started when Saturday turned into Sunday when authorities responded to Roetzer Street and found a 19-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the foot after a fight broke out at a block party.

Police then responded to another party at 2 a.m. on Wood Avenue for reports of shots fired. Authorities say no one was hit, but three cars were hit by gunfire and one person was struck by a car.

Just 30 minutes later, authorities rushed to the Rite Aid parking lot at Elmwood and Bryant and found two men shot to death.

Finally, around 4 a.m., police arrived at the scene of a third incident, this time on Woodlawn Avenue, and found a man and a woman shot.
The four incidents took place over a four-hour period.

Gramaglia said no arrests have been made in the shootings and did not rule out the possibility that the shootings are related.

“At this point it’s too early to tell,” he said. “But I don’t see anything that would link these different locations.”

The commissioner did not provide further details about the incidents, but suggested that teenagers may have been involved, a phenomenon that is starting to become a trend in Buffalo this summer, with several violent incidents involving teenagers and guns occurring in recent weeks. Most recently, one killed 3-year-old Ramone Carter.

Gramaglia hopes to send the same message to parents tonight: “These 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds, you need to know where they are,” he said. “You need to know what time it is and what time they need to come home, what time you need to go out and get them and bring them home.”

Investigators are continuing to interview victims and gather evidence, so Gramaglia said it will take some time to make progress on all four cases.