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A flurry of gunshots wounded at least nine people at an outdoor party with hundreds on Syracuse’s Near West Side Saturday night, including a 17-year-old boy who is in critical condition.
Police Chief Kenton Buckner said at least nine were wounded and taken to Upstate Medical University after the shootings near Fayette and Wyoming streets. The boy was shot in the head, police said.
A video posted to Facebook appears to capture more than 25 shots that scattered the crowd.
A witness said the shooting occurred at an annual outdoor gathering called “Rye Day,” which features a DJ. Several hundred people crowded into a square near the WCNY building to enjoy the music, cookout and festivities. The event was scheduled to end at 9 p.m.
About 15 minutes before the event was to end, the music abruptly stopped, the witness said. Then he heard at least 12 shots and people scattered.
A crowd of people ran northeast from the square. The witness saw a man sitting on his knees holding his chest with two hands. He wore a blue-striped shirt and jeans. He encouraged the man to get up and keep running.
I said, ‘Come on, man, we gotta go. They’re shooting,” the witness said. “He said, ‘I can’t, man, I got shot.’ So he just sat there waiting for help.”
Suddenly at least 10 police cars were racing to the scene, the witness said.
“When I took off, at least 10 cop cars were flying, flying, flying,” he said.
One person being taken to the hospital in a private car collided with a police car at Fayette and Bank Alley, Buckner said.
Police had no one in custody, Buckner said around 11 p.m.
Rye Day is the creation of Ryedell Davis, who has had a raucous birthday party for 14 years near Martin Luther King Boulevard and South State Street, said his mother, Annetta Peterson.
But this year, Syracuse Housing Authority officials told her she couldn’t organize the party because of traffic concerns, Peterson said.
They moved the party to a square on the Near West Side, she said.
The party had ended and they were packing up from the music and cookout when shots rang out, she said.
She ducked under her car, she said, and heard too many gunshots to count.
She said the popular birthday party was always peaceful until this year.
“I’ve had a birthday party for my son every year, and this never happened,” she said. “This never, ever happened.”
After the shooting, the area flooded with police from around the county — state troopers, county deputies and local police.
“There does not appear to be a current active threat at this time, but Westside residents should remain inside and call police with any info,” police posted.
Mayor Ben Walsh was at the scene.
Victims’ ages and injuries:
- 17-year-old boy, shot in the head, critical condition
- 23-year-old man, shot in the groin and the leg, non-life threatening
- 29-year-old man, shot in the neck, non-life threatening
- 20-year-old woman, shot in the leg, non-life threatening
- 18-year-old girl, shot in the leg, non-life threatening
- 19-year-old, girl, shot in the leg, non-life threatening
- 37-year-old woman, shot in the shoulder, non-life threatening
- 22-year-old man, shot in the leg, non-life threatening
- 53-year-old woman, shot in the back back and midsection (police did not release the woman’s condition)
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