ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The man set to replace the incumbent mayor of the city of Rochester is already shifting gears from campaigning to tackling campaign issues.

As Malik Evans publicly discussed his plans for the future of the city of Rochester, he addressed the issue that has seemingly become the absolute top priority for citizens – violence.

What You Need To Know

  • Malik Evans addressed the issue that has seemingly become the absolute top priority for citizens – violence

  • Evans is taking aim at getting guns off of Rochester’s streets

  • He says it’s about prevention

“We have to attack crime and violence from a multi-part strategy,” Evans said. “It's not just one thing that's going to solve it. It's a bunch of different things that we have to do in coordination in order to stop crime.”

The at-large Rochester city councilmember secured 66% of the unofficial vote, upending Lovely Warren's bid for a third term. Warren conceded Tuesday night, congratulating Evans and saying she supports him 100%.

Fresh off the celebration from his still unofficial win in the mayoral primary race, Evans is taking aim at getting guns off of Rochester’s streets.

“I think one of the things we can do is we can collaborate with our state, local, federal partners to see what we can do to stem the flow of illegal guns,” Evans said.

And it’s not just short-term goals. Evans also has long-term plans.

“But then long-term, there’s an economic impact. How do you make sure that people have economic opportunity?” Evans said. “So that way they won't turn to a life of crime, a life of guns, a life of drugs. That's the long-term strategy that you have to do.”

Evans says it’s about prevention.

“This is about investment,” he said. “So it's just not about, it's about looking at the entire budget, police budget, everything to make sure that you are investing in what I call front-end investments. What are those mental health job programs, mediation programs, recidivism programs, programs that help with recidivism? These are all investments that are on the front end that in the long time will drive crime down.”

Where does Evans fall on the issue of reallocation of funds away from the Rochester Police Department?

“So if we're going to solve crime, it has to be a combination of police, the community, homes,” he said. “All of those things working together. It's not just one or the other. Police can't solve crimes by themselves, and the public can't solve crimes by themselves. So you have to see how you can work together in order to make things happen, and that's what I'm interested in.”

Squeezing in as much time with his young sons, Evans is working to make the city a better place for them.

“I want to make sure that my young, my sons don't have to experience the same things that I did,” Evans said. “Unfortunately, they're seeing on the news and they're old enough to ask questions. So how do we make sure that the next generation of young people in the ones that are coming up now do not have to deal with the level of violence that we have seen in our community over the last nine months.”

Throughout his campaign Evans did continue to remind voters about his goals to target violence in Rochester.