What to Know
- A man who was suspected but ultimately acquitted in a triple killing in Rochester was himself shot and killed
- Jalen Everett was shot around 8 p.m. Saturday while riding in a car on Dewey Avenue near Magee Avenue
- Police warned the public not to jump to conclusions or retaliation as investigators searched Sunday for suspects in his death
A man who was suspected but ultimately acquitted in a triple killing in Rochester was himself shot and killed, and police warned the public not to jump to conclusions or retaliation as investigators searched Sunday for suspects in his death.
Jalen Everett was shot around 8 p.m. Saturday while riding in a car on Dewey Avenue near Magee Avenue. The 24-year-old was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police haven't determined a motive for the shooting, which came over two years after Everett was acquitted in his second trial stemming from the triple killing outside the Rochester Boys and Girls Club in 2015.
On Sunday, Police Chief La'Ron Singletary warned about rumors of reprisals and implored the public not to let Everett's death spiral into more violence.
"A lot of people are drawing comparisons" between his killing and the 2015 shootings, Singletary said at a news conference. "Until you hear it from us in regards to what the motive is, everything else is just pure speculation."
"Let us focus on the task at hand," he said.
Local
Meanwhile, relatives and friends gathered to remember Everett at a vigil near the site of the shooting.
"No matter how people felt about Jalen, no matter what his past, that was still someone's son," a cousin, Camille McIntyre, told Spectrum News Rochester. "Nobody deserves to be snatched out like this."
McIntyre said Everett was a father of two boys, one a newborn.
Everett was one of three men charged after a burst of gunfire killed three people and wounded multiple others in a crowd leaving a basketball game at the Boys and Girls Club. Prosecutors said the shots came from a vehicle in which Everett and the other two suspects were riding.
Everett was convicted of murder at his first trial, but a judge overturned the verdict after allegations of juror misconduct surfaced.
A second jury acquitted Everett in January 2017.
One other suspect, Johnny Blackshell Jr., was convicted and is serving life in prison. The third, Matthew Matthis, was acquitted.
