BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Fourth of July weekend in Buffalo is now being remembered for a different kind of red, white, and blue,
Buffalo Police responded to four different shootings early Sunday morning that left five people wounded. No one died.
Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia spoke with 2 On Your Side Monday afternoon for the first time since the incidents.
“The third, fourth, and fifth, we had no shootings,” he said. “The night of the sixth, unfortunately, there were a couple of different street parties that resulted in shootings.”
It all started when Saturday turned into Sunday with authorities responding to Roetzer Street and finding a 19-year-old woman shot in the foot after a fight broke out at a block party.
Police then found themselves at the scene of another party at 2 a.m. on Wood Avenue for reports of shots fired. Officials say no one was struck, but three cars were hit by bullets and one person was hit by a car.
Just 30 minutes later, authorities raced to the Rite Aid Parking lot at Elmwood and Bryant and found two men shot.
Lastly, around 4 a.m. police arrived at the scene of a third party, this time on Woodlawn Avenue, and found a man and woman shot.
The four incidents took place across four hours.
Gramaglia said no arrests have been made in any of the shootings and did not rule out the possibility that the shootings are connected.
“At this point, it's a little early to say,” he said. “But I don't see anything at this point that would make those different locations related.”
The commissioner did not reveal any more specifics on the incidents but gave the idea that teenagers may have been involved — something that’s starting to turn into a trend in Buffalo this summer with several violent incidents involving teenagers and guns taking place in just the past few weeks. Most recently, one left 3-year-old Ramone Carter dead.
Gramaglia hopes to reach parents with the same repeated message tonight: “These kids, 13, 14, 15 years old, you’ve got to know where they are,” he said. “You’ve got to know what time it is and what time they should be home, what time you’ve got to go out and find them and bring them home.”
Investigators are still interviewing victims and collecting evidence, so Gramaglia said it will be some time before they make progress in these four cases.