The Rochester Police Department has made its first arrest in a July shooting which left two women dead, and five others injured, at Maplewood Park.
Police arrested Niger Johnson, 21, at his grandmother’s house on Arnett Boulevard on Friday, with assistance from the US Marshals Violent Fugitive Taskforce, and charged him with first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. In September, the RPD publicly identified him as a suspect and released photos of him that had been circulating on social media. In the photos he appeared to be crouched and holding a handgun.
The reckless endangerment charge carries a sentence of up to seven years, while the weapons possession charge carries a minimum sentence of three-and-a-half years up to 15 years.
Chief David Smith said Johnson’s arrest followed a challenging investigation.
“The investigation into the tragedy at Maplewood Park is not over,” Smith said. “The major crimes unit is continuing to follow up on every investigative lead they get. They will never stop working to identify and apprehend the people responsible for this tragedy.”
In the early evening of July 29th, 2024, hundreds of people gathered in Maplewood Park for a community barbecue. Suddenly, shots rang out as several people spread across the park began firing guns.
Phylicia Council, 34, and Tyasia Manning, 25, were left dead following the gunfight. Five other people were shot.
“Tyasia and Phylicia were both brave community members that had their entire lives ahead of them,” said Mayor Malik Evans. “...Tyasia was one of our city employees working in our city rec centers with young people, they loved her, and she was beloved by her coworkers.”
The Rochester Police Department has sought 16 people in connection with the shooting. But the chaos of the shooting itself creates a unique challenge.
The department said it believes nine different guns were involved in the shooting, in which more than 50 rounds were fired.
“It’s a very complex case, it’s a very difficult case to charge anybody with any of the various crimes that were committed,” said Captain Frank Umbrino. “That doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to try. In Mr. Johnson’s case, we were able to do that. But it’s just a very high burden of proof we have to come up with.”
Rochester police officials said they believe Johnson did not fire any of the shots that killed Manning or Council.
Umbrino said the department has not yet come up with enough evidence to charge any of the 15 other suspects it has identified.
“What we are comfortable in telling you at this time is that there was a group of four or five individuals, who were younger than the majority of the crowd, that showed up with bad intentions,” Umbrino said.
LaQuita Roundheart, Tyasia Manning's mother, described Johnson's arrest as "10% justice."
"I have no faith in our system and our community," Roundheart said. "There was so many people out, somebody's seen somebody, somebody's seen something."
Manning's killing has resurfaced the trauma of the killing of Roundheart's mother when she was a young girl, a case she said was never solved. She fears the same will happen with her daughter's case.
She blamed both the Police Department and a no snitching culture for making justice elusive.
"We have this, 'Oh, you better not say nothing or they can retaliate on you.' 'Oh, I ain't snitching, I ain't telling the police nothing,'" Roundheart said. "Until it happens to your family."
Johnson’s arrest is not his first in recent years.
In September 2023, Johnson, then 19, was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, assault, and obstruction of governmental administration on Lyell Avenue. That arrest followed a foot chase in which one officer was injured.
Umbrino said Johnson was not on parole or probation at the time of the Maplewood Park shooting.
Johnson is currently being held in the Monroe County Jail and is scheduled to be arraigned Saturday morning.
