Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan is speaking out for the first time since violence broke out across the city over the Fourth of July weekend.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Erika Shields said on Monday that 11 people were shot in six separate shootings. Police say all victims’ injuries appear to be non-life threatening and range in age between 13 and 51 years old.
The city is blaming the violence on a highly promoted block party on Stevens Avenue in Buffalo. All of those shootings broke out near the party, which featured thousands of people in attendance.
Ryan says the violence will not be tolerated.
“It’s absolutely distressing,” Ryan said. “We had more police officers on duty this year than the previous Fourth of July. We showed the organizers that they are not going to be able to come here to do this mayhem. But they popped up just like last year. This event over the weekend was an organized, chaotic event. The organizer wanted to organize chaos, and they achieved it. It was a bad day for the people who live in the city of Buffalo. This type of lawlessness will not be permitted.”
Ryan said the city is also considering putting a curfew into effect.
“One of the ideas being circulated now is a curfew,” Ryan said. “We’re going to look into it with our Corporation Council’s Office, but also talk to the mayors of Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, who are almost facing the exact same problem that we are.”
The promoter of the gathering has caused problems for the city in the past, according to officials, and Ryan and the BPD are pursuing a cease and desist order.
They also want to make that person pay for the BPD’s overtime clocked over the holiday weekend.
“He chose to do something unproductive, chaotic, harmful to the neighborhoods and something that led to a lot of violence,” Ryan said. “Anything that we can pin on this guy, we’re going to pin on him.”