Rochester police have announced an arrest in connection with the mass shooting in Maplewood Park last summer.
During a news conference on Friday, Rochester Police Chief David Smith said the suspect that investigators first announced to the public in September had been taken into custody. Through their investigation, in collaboration with the RPD Major Crimes Unit, the U.S. Marshal's Service Felony Fugitive Task Force located Niger Johnson, 21, of Rochester, at his grandmother's home on Arnett Boulevard. An arrest warrant was executed at the address on Friday morning and Johnson was apprehended, police say.
Chief Smith says Johnson is charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned on Saturday at Rochester City Court and a preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 11. Smith says Johnson was also arrested in 2022 and 2023 for allegedly possessing a handgun illegally in the city of Rochester.
According to police, Johnson was one of 16 people who had firearms in Maplewood Park during a gathering on July 28, 2024. Police say nine of those individuals fired between 40-50 shots into a crowd of hundreds of people who were in the park enjoying a barbecue. Seven people were shot during the incident. Tyasia Manning, 25, and Phylicia Council, 34, died from their injuries. Police do not allege that any of the shots fired by Johnson struck any of the victims.
"The community reached out to the mayor's office, to the police department, to the broader community and they said that they had enough," said Rochester Mayor Malik Evans. "There were grandmothers in the park that day, there were little kids in the park that day. A day that was supposed to be a day of celebration should not have been turned into a day of horror and unnecessary destruction."
Investigators say they are still working to determine what led up to the shooting and to identify and locate the other suspects in this case.
"I want to say to the community, while we are happy to have this one individual in custody, we still need to continue to keep our feet on the gas until all of the individuals responsible for the heinous act that took place on July 28 are brought to justice," said Evans.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at 585-428-9910 or Crime Stoppers.
