Community outrage over the shooting of a three-year-old who got caught in a crossfire during a gunfight between two males on North CLinton Avenue this week condensed yesterday into a call for an overhaul of New York’s bail reform law.
Dozens of community members joined city officials Thursday night across the street from the site where the child was hit by a stray bullet while strapped into a car seat in his mother’s car. City Councilmember Michael Patterson called on state leaders to amend the controversial bail reform law which some elected officials and community leaders say is putting dangerous criminals back on the streets immediately after they area arrested, often without bail. Patterson said judges should be allowed to decide if a person is too dangerous to the community to be released.
Rochester Police Thursday went to 12 hour shifts in order to have more presence on the streets, and yesterday they saturated the North Clinton Avenue area where there have been seven homicides this year. Mayor Malik Evans said this is aimed at gang members and “wannabees” who freely use guns against one another, often with innocent people caught in the middle.
Police said they arrested two suspects in the toddler’s shooting after a quick response to the gunfire put them on the scene as the suspects fled. One was a 16-year-old boy who was wearing tactical armor and was carrying drugs. The other was 34-year-old Travis Lewis, who was out of jail on bail while awaiting sentencing for his role in a gunfight last year. His sentencing was delayed while he recovered from a gunshot wound. Police Chief David Smith said Lewis has continued to be out on bail despite multiple past convictions.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office also joined the call yesterday for reform of the new bail law. Bello said the system must be amended to “require dangerous people with guns that are hell bent on opening fire on our streets to be held. Period.”
Bello said the county will give Sheriff Todd Baxter more resources to help the city fight crime and maintain law enforcement presence on the streets,