With 15 homicides recorded since the star of the year, including three on New Year's Day, the City of Buffalo is having its deadliest start to a year in a decade. The mayor is assuring the public that police are working long hours to gather information for breaks in unsolved cases.
Three of Buffalo's 15 homicides occured since the start of March. In addition, three people were shot and wounded in a mid-afternoon drive-by at Genesee and Eller on the city's East Side.
It's the busiest start of a year for homicide investigators since 2007, when they were investigating nine homicides through March 6 of that year.
"Our police department is literally working overtime. They're working 24-7 trying to bring information together, trying to solve these crimes," said Mayor Byron Brown.
The mayor would not discuss possible motives in each case but suggested none were random acts.
Patrols are increasing in neighborhoods where recent acts of violence have occurred, the mayor stated. As far as gathering information, Brown dismisses the notion that "no one saw anything."
"We know that's not accurate," he said. "We know that there are people who probably saw things, people who heard things. No amount of information is too small."
He encourages anyone with useful information to use the police department's anonymous tip hotline - 847-2255.
