A man was found dead inside a home on Myrtle Street and Rochester police are calling the circumstances "suspicious."

  • Car crash in Greece leads Rochester Police to find a man dead in his home
  • Police are calling the death “suspicious”
  • Greece Police arrested the driver who officials say tried to run

“This early in the morning, something’s already happening? That was my first reaction, I never thought it’d be so close to home,” said Precious Allen, who just lives two doors down from the home.

Allen says she was surprised to find that her normally quiet neighborhood was crawling with police when she woke up to get her kids ready for school Friday.

“It’s pretty shocking for me right now because I have a baby that plays in the street every day," Allen said. "And you never know what happened or how it happened or anything like that.”

Rochester police drove to the Myrtle Street home to find the registered owner of a car involved in a crash earlier in the morning. That’s when they found Robert Hartman, 65, dead inside.

“Very suspicious at this time is all I can tell you," RPD Lieutenant Naser Zenelovic said. "There’s a man in the location that has been deceased for a little bit of time.”

The crash happened on Route 390 near West Ridge Road in Greece, and the car caught fire as a result. Greece Police arrested the driver who officials say tried to run from the scene near Route 104.

“It’s very sad. Even though I don’t know him, it’s sad to wake up one day and find one of your neighbors has passed on,” said neighbor Sania Niyirangira.

An autopsy will determine Hartman's cause of death. Neighbors say he lived alone.

“I never see him. I’ve seen him twice out of the five years I lived here," Allen said. "He was real quiet, never came outside, always in the house down there.”

There’s no word yet on what — if any — connection the man involved in the crash had with Hartman.