Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter says Rochester “absolutely has a gang problem.”
During a Thursday news conference, the sheriff said “these are not community members getting annoyed and going around and shooting each other.” He said “these are targeted…talented I would say…assaults on other people.” Baxter said the gangs are using team tactics, using triangulated attack positions and assassinating people. He said “we have kids with AK-47s doing team assassinations of beautiful human beings, killing a woman in front of her two kids.”
Baxter made the comments during a press conference with local law enforcement agencies including Rochester and Greece Police, U.S. Marshals and the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Together they were announcing that “Operation Guardian” has made 15 arrests together in murder cases so far this year, which was what police accomplished for all of last year. They’ve made 60 arrests in the last 29 days, including five connected to homicides.