BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Police are investigating multiple shootings this week involving teenagers. Three shootings this week in the City of Buffalo involved teens as the victims.
Here's what police have told 2 On Your Side so far.
On Tuesday afternoon, a 17-year-old girl died in a shooting on Koons Avenue. Police have not released her name yet but have arrested Vincent Manirakiza, 19, and charged him with murder and burglary.
A 19-year-old man was also shot. He is in stable condition. Police haven't released his name, but they do say they believe the 19-year-old was the targeted victim, not the girl who died. Buffalo Police are still looking for a second suspect and know who he is.
Wednesday morning right after midnight, someone shot a 15-year-old boy on the 200 block of Grider Street. The boy was taken to Oishei Children's Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. They also say that shooting appears to have been targeted and not random.
Then Wednesday night around 10:30, Buffalo Police say someone shot a 17-year-old girl in the arm while she was in her home on the 100 block of Jefferson Avenue.
"The shots were fired from outside the house into the house. It's our understanding that the victim was involved in an argument with another person. We don't know if that is connected to it or not. We understand that there may have been a little longer standing feud going on. Again, that is all under investigation, but we are still looking to see if that one was targeted based on some of the information we've uncovered," Deputy Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.
The 17-year-old girl is at Oishei Children's Hospital in stable condition.
"We also see these disputes on social media rise to the level of this gun violence. We need to keep our kids involved in some other things. Actively involved in school, after school activities, you know, homes, keeping them involved in activities at home and families knowing what they're up to. Keeping them off the streets. We certainly shouldn't have kids that are at houses that are targeted or being a target of violence themselves," Gramaglia said.
If you know anything, you're asked to call police at 716-847-2255. They say sometimes it's tough because in many cases, the survivors don't want to talk about what happened even if they have information.
"We are seeing more juveniles, 16, 17-year-olds, and even younger than that, that are possessing guns that are getting their hands on guns and they're using guns. It's a shame," Gramaglia said.
"It's something that the amount of guns on the street are disturbing. The amount of illegal guns, the amount of ghost guns on the street are disturbing. It's very easy for someone to get their hands on a gun, and kids that age, they get involved in a lot of conflicts, and unfortunately they don't have the capacity to learn resolution strategies other than short of picking up a gun."
The deputy commissioner went over the numbers for the past few years for shootings involving people 17 and under. He says last year was in the middle of the pack: 23 people 17 and under were shot in the City of Buffalo.
The lowest that number has been in the past six years is 12 in 2018. The highest was 26 in 2016.
So far this year, with three victims this week alone 17 and under, Buffalo would be on pace to surpass last year's numbers, but this was not a typical week.