Rochester city officials spoke out on Monday after a violent weekend, with three homicides taking place in the city in a little more than 24 hours. 

"I don't want anyone to get desensitized to violence and that's why we're standing here today,” Mayor Malik Evans said. “Because now whenever we have homicides like this, it's a good reminder to say to folks 'This is not normal.’ And I think sometimes people normalize homicides or shootings in urban environments." 

The latest homicide happened Monday morning on Bay Street, where police say a taxi driver was killed and robbed of his cab. This comes after two homicides over the weekend. One happened Sunday evening, where police say a 53-year-old man was found dead outside on South Clinton Avenue. Police also say a 35-year-old man was shot and killed on Day Place Sunday morning.

There are no suspects in custody for the homicides and investigations are ongoing.  

“I appeal to anyone that saw anything related to these three homicides in the last two days to make sure that you come forward,” Evans said. “This is not the Rochester we want to be a part of.” 

“Most of our homicides are the result of violent retaliatory disputes,” Rochester Police Chief David Smith said. “Most of them result from folks who have a relationship in one kind or another and take to settling their dispute with guns and violence.” 

So far this year, Smith says 228 firearms have been recovered from Rochester streets, with 182 of the weapons having been previously used in a crime. Thirty-six high-risk search warrants have been served so far this year by the Special Investigations Section of the RPD. 

Despite these recent incidents, Evans says violent crime is down across the board so far this year. During his State of the City address delivered last week, Evans announced that firearm violence has seen a significant reduction over the past two years, with shootings down by 31%, firearm-related deaths by 29% and total homicides by 32%. 

“We want to put a stop to it,” Evans said on Monday. “We don’t need to stand for it in Rochester. We’re not going to stand for it in Rochester. We’re going to stay on top of it. We’ve made great progress over the last two years, but I have been clear I don’t want that progress to stop. But we can’t do it alone.”