BUFFALO, N.Y. — Five people have been released from the hospital after a fight amongst teenagers escalated to gunfire on Crossman Ave in Buffalo on Tuesday night.
"The problem here is you've got young people, 13, 14, 15 years old, that were engaged in some kind of an altercation, and they rapidly escalated into gunfire," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
"What are we doing here?"
Commissioner Gramaglia says while gun related crimes were down 32% in 2022, it's still too easy for young people to obtain a gun.
"The guns are too pervasive in our community," Gramaglia said. "They're easy to get, and that's a problem."
In recent years there has been a rise of so-called ghost guns. These are guns that are sold as individual components and assembled by someone, or they are relatively easy to make themselves.
Commissioner Gramaglia added, however, that it's too early to determine if ghost guns were used during Tuesday nights shooting.
"If we recover a gun, we can link it to the shell casings," Gramaglia said. "That would be the point I can tell you, not until we get our hands on the gun that was used or gun or guns that were used."
Buffalo Police reported a 1,300% increase in ghost gun seizures in 2021, compared to 2020.
No charges have been filed as a result of Tuesday night's shooting, and Buffalo Police are still investigating.
Commissioner Gramaglia says cooperation with the community, particularly in this case, is important.
"From what I'm told by my investigators is that parents were cooperating, the kids not so much," Gramaglia said. "We are going to continue our efforts on community rich building community engagement, working with young kids, and try to build those relationships."