IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

2 killed hours after National Night Out

Two people were killed and three others seriously hurt after an early-morning shooting outside a home in Buffalo, police said Wednesday.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A shooting in a blighted Buffalo neighborhood left two people dead and three others wounded early Wednesday, just hours after police and community members rallied for safer streets.

A 25-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were shot and killed about 2 a.m. in a neighborhood on Buffalo's east side, where the number of vacant properties rivals the number of occupied homes, police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said.

The man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene, DeGeorge said.

Detectives said a 29-year-old man and two other women, ages 20 and 27, were believed to have been shot while sitting in a vehicle. All three were reported in serious condition at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, DeGeorge said.

The names of the victims haven't been released. Police said the motive for the shooting remained under investigation.

National Night Out
The gunfire erupted just a few hours after neighbors and police concluded their National Night Out events to promote safe neighborhoods.

The two-story home where the shooting happened is bordered by overgrown lawns and a vacant lot with an abandoned car. Neighbors stopped by to leave flowers on the front steps. A nearby well-kept house stood in contrast to other mostly rundown homes on the same street.

By midmorning, police had left the scene.

A man who said he lived three doors from the scene of the shooting and next door to the 25-year-old man who died said he recalled hearing gunfire earlier than the time reported by police.

"This neighborhood has gone from bad to worse. There's always something going on," said the man, who refused to give his name because he lives in the area.

A woman who stood on the front porch of what neighbors said was the home of the 25-year-old victim's mother waved off a reporter without commenting.

Bridgette Foster, 35, who has lived on the street 10 years, said she heard the dead man's brother scream. She ran down the street and found him standing over his brother.

"I tried to do a little CPR," Foster said. "He was unresponsive and that was it. He died."