Friends and family poured into Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to say farewell to Raymundo Rodriguez. The 22-year old was gunned down last Sunday morning on Roycroft Street. At the same time Rochester police and pastors at several churches were trying to get guns off the streets with the city's latest “no questions asked” gun drop-off. “It doesn’t matter if the weapons are used, if their broken, if they're working, non-working no trigger, no bullets. It doesn’t matter as long as the weapon is brought in,” said Gerry Coleman. But it was slow going. By mid-afternoon some churches hadn’t collected a single gun. “Unfortunately, it’s been a lot slower than it was a couple of months ago when we did this, “said Charity Bible Baptist Church Pastor Anthony Saxton. The day went a little better at Helping Hand Missionary Baptist Church. They collected one rifle and one broken handgun. “The expectation is to get as many guns off the streets as we can to reduce the violence,” said Rochester police Lieutenant Michael Lesniak. It's been a busy year for Rochester police. So far this year there have been 37 homicides. The majority of the killings were committed with guns. Lt. Lesniak says even getting these two guns off the streets can make a difference. “For every gun we get off the street realistically it can cut down four, five, or six shootings,” said Lt. Lesniak. Pastor Saxton agrees. “it's one way of getting guns off the streets. Guns don't kill people but you never know if that "one gun" that might have come in through the drop-off might be the one that spares somebody's life,” said Rev. Saxton.
