Officers Injured, Suspect Shot on State Street
By: Tina Shively
Updated: January 29, 2013
It was just after 1:30
Tuesday afternoon when 4 Rochester police officers responded with a Court
Marshall to evict a man from his apartment on State Street for not paying his
rent.
They were on the third
floor when it became obvious that the eviction wouldn't go as planned.
Sgt. Justin Collins of the
Rochester Police Department said "Upon arrival they made contact with the
tenant. While conducting the investigation, the officers did fire multiple
shots at the suspect."
Police say the tenant
threw bleach on more than one of the officers.
Shots were fired and the
tenant was hit.
Further details have not
been released.
"That's always our
problem, reacting to the unknown," said Mike Mazzeo of the Rochester Police
Locust Club. "Our guys are good, they are well trained, they are experienced,
they know what they are doing and they handled the situation the right way."
The owner of The Pizza Stop
next door was wrapping up a busy lunch hour when the officers came rushing out
of the building.
Jim
Staffieri said "He came out and had all kinds of
stuff on his uniform. I thought he was hit with mace; he was rubbing his eyes.
It looked like something happened, and then we found out it was probably
bleach."
Workers gave the officer
water to help wash out his eyes.
The building is owned by
the Volunteers of America.
For the last 15 years, it's
served as transitional housing for people who used to be homeless.
Most recently the building
underwent a $3 million renovation.
It was the VOA's first
eviction, according to the agency's COO, Doug Stark. "We followed all of the
legal procedures that were necessary, gave him proper notice and today was the
last day he had opportunity to stay in the apartment."
The VOA is now working
with tenants and building staff to make sure they feel safe.
Rochester Police will
likely provide more details on the case on Wednesday morning.
