Rochester chief: Robbery suspect killed in exchange of gunfire with police identified

Updated story (Oct. 8, 2021): Police identified Simran S. Gordon, 24, as the armed robbery suspect shot and killed by police at the West Main Street Family Dollar two days earlier.

Police report that Gordon died in an exchange of gunfire. The department is still working on collecting, reviewing, and redacting police body-worn camera footage of the incident and haven't released who is believed to have shot first during the incident.

Representatives from the state Attorney General's Office have notified Gordon's family members, police said. 

Original story (Oct. 7, 2021): One person was shot and killed by Rochester police Wednesday evening during an armed robbery attempt at the Family Dollar store on West Main Street, interim Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said early Thursday.

Two police officers responded to the attempted armed robbery and neither was injured during what Herriott-Sullivan described as an exchange of gunfire. Nor were any customers or employees hurt, the police chief said.

An employee called 911 after the suspect, a man in his 30s, was holding the store manager at gun point, prompting the two officers to respond, Herriott-Sullivan said during a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Public Safety Building downtown.

"It's going to take a little bit before we have a full explanation about what happened from the point that the incident started," the chief said at the scene.

She later said she wasn't yet prepared to release if the suspect fired first at officers before they returned fire. The incident, which she said unfolded within a matter of minutes, involved a chase between the suspect and officers inside the story.

Investigators have reams of store video and police body-worn camera video, she said, adding, "All of that has to be reviewed before we have a clear picture of what happened."

In New York state, when a person is killed in an encounter with police, the state Attorney General's Office takes over the investigation into what happened. That is happening in the Family Dollar case, Herriott-Sullivan said.

This was the third fatal shooting by Rochester police officers in 2021. In addition, a fourth person died last month in an encounter with a U.S. Marshals Service task force.

All of these deaths have occurred at a time of heightened awareness over police violence against Black men across America and in Rochester, where Daniel Prude died in March 2020 after he stopped breathing while being restrained by Rochester police officers during a mental-health episode.

The fatal incident took place at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday inside the Family Dollar store located at 715 West Main St.

West Main Street was closed to traffic for several hours Wednesday night and early Thursday, between Jefferson Avenue and Lamberton Park.

During her Thursday press conference, Herriott-Sullivan said the man, whom she would not identify, was suspected in three homicides, one in 2020 and a double slaying around June. She declined to additional details on the incidents. She said police are awaiting results from the medical examiner and still need to notify the man's family.

Mayor Lovely Warren, in a statement, said she wanted RPD to "review, redact and release" all bodycam footage as quickly as possible.

"I am grateful that no one else, including our officers, was injured.” Warren concluded.

Other killings by law-enforcement officers in Rochester this year

The killing of George Floyd while he was restrained for about nine minutes on Memorial Day 2020 in Minneapolis prompted a reckoning across the country about policing and racial injustice. Protests erupted in cities and towns nationwide, including in Rochester, where residents did not know in spring 2020 that Daniel Prude had died following an encounter with Rochester police two months before Floyd was killed.

Prude's death came to light in early September 2020, generating some of the largest protests Rochester has seen since the civil unrest of the 1960s. Attorney General Letitia James' office investigated Prude's death and presented it to a grand jury, which did not return any criminal indictments last winter.

One Rochester officer involved in restraining Prude on March 23, 2020, recently learned he faces departmental discipline proceedings over his actions. A hearing officer is to be appointed to decide what discipline Officer Mark Vaughn might receive.

Here are the previous three killings in 2021 of a person involving law-enforcement agencies in Rochester:

• March 10: Tyshon Jones is shot and killed by an officer near the Open Door Mission on West Main Street. A grand jury later determined that Officer Matthew Drake was justified in his use of force.

• May 14: Mark Gaskill is shot and killed by police on Glasser Street after authorities stopped a car in which he was riding while they were investigating a report of shots fired. The officers involved were Blake Langdon and and Donald Flood Jr. The incident remains under investigation by the Attorney General's Office.

• Sept. 15: Dedrick J. James, 24, was shot and killed at his grandmother's home at 6 Vinewood Place in Rochester as members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force sought to serve an arrest warrant on him and a struggle ensued. Authorities say the man was shot by his own gun. Community leaders and relatives have expressed questions over the Marshals Office account.

More:Outcome of AG's investigation of two fatal shootings by RPD likely to be months away