15-Year-Old Sick Boy Shot On His Way Home From School

Unfortunately, life is never too quiet for the Rochester Police Department. On Thursday afternoon, officers had to deal with the latest bit of senseless violence residents of Flower City are all too familiar with. This time, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg on Arnett Boulevard near the intersection of Warwick Avenue.

According to 13 WHAM, police said the incident occurred at about 12:30 p.m., right outside the Arnett Cafe. The one bit of good luck in the whole situation was that the Grace Family Medicine facility is also located right next door to the cafe and, presumably, one of the boy’s friends carried him into the physician’s office immediately following the shooting, where one of the doctors was able to start treatment.

“We hurried him back to a room and got him on a table — he was conscious,” said Dr. Matthew Mack. “Shot through the leg, front to back. The entrance wound was one centimeter; the exit wound, which is always larger, was 1.5 centimeters.”

Eventually, the teenage boy was transferred to Strong Memorial Hospital, where he reportedly is in relatively good condition.

Initial reports from police officials indicate that the boy may have been involved in a verbal altercation before the shooting happened. According to the victims’s friend, Tamar Greer, the boy was doing nothing wrong and was actually on his way home sick from school, perhaps with one of the six to 10 colds children catch on average per year.

“It was tragic because my boy was sick and he was just trying to go home from school,” Greer said. “It’s tragic how they just shot him. He’s a good kid. He was playing basketball for the charter school and he was nice.”

Three bullets hit the window of the Arnett Cafe, but luckily no one inside was hurt. The Genesee Street shooting that happened at the Boys and Girls Club last summer occurred not too far from the area.

“It is a very violent area of the city,” Mack said. “Our response is to try to be involved and help, rather than be afraid.”

The RPD continues to investigate the situation, but no suspects have been taken into custody at the time of this writing.