It’s been just over a week since a Gates police officer shot and killed 27-year-old Haley Rodriguez, and her brothers, Justin Wright and Caleb Snell, are seeking answers about the events that led to her death.
“It's just an unfortunate situation,” Wright said. “She didn't have to go like that. There's so many things that could have been done to prevent the whole thing.”
The brothers said Rodriguez was adopted into their family 12 years ago, after her mother died of cancer. She had been staying with them until about a week before her death, when she left to stay with her father who recently had a seizure.
They described Rodriguez as loving and kindhearted to her family. Each has twins, one a set of 3-year-olds, the other a set of 5-year-olds.
Wright and Snell haven’t been able to break the news to their children that the woman they called “TiTi” is gone.
“We tell them ‘TiTi’s sick,’ and that's a horrible thing to say,” Wright said. “I don't like lying to my kids, but that's the only thing that I can say to them.”
“Two nights ago, all of our babies was crying out for Auntie,” Snell said. “‘Say goodnight, TiTi.’ ‘Say good night, Auntie.’ ‘Where's Auntie? Where's Auntie?’
“We haven't fully processed it yet," Wright added. "So how are we going to be able to break the news to a bunch of little kiddos?”
What exactly happened just past 1 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, is not entirely clear. The incident is under investigation by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and the state Attorney General's Office, a routine step required by state law any time a police officer kills someone while performing their duties.
Wright also noted that Rodriguez had a mental health condition that may have contributed to her actions that night.
“I feel like she switched, and she wasn't herself at that time,” he said.
Gates Police Chief Robert Long said at a news conference last week that an officer found Rodriguez walking in the middle of Spencerport Road. Long said when the officer confronted her, he “immediately observed the fact that the person had a revolver in their hand.”
Rodriguez allegedly raised the revolver at the officer, prompting him to open fire. Long declined to comment on how many times Rodriguez was shot. Police said she died later that morning at Strong Memorial Hospital.
When questioned, Long clarified it was not a real gun, but a “replica.”
Wright said he believes his sister was carrying a silver-colored novelty torch lighter shaped like a small gun that he had gifted her; the flame came from the barrel when the hammer was pulled back. He claimed it was about the size of his finger and also had an orange safety cap on the end denoting it was not a real weapon.
“If it's a revolver and it's that big, there's no way that it's a revolver,” Wright said. “There's no way that you'd be able to fire that without the cylinder blast burning your hand.”
WXXI News has reached out to the Gates Police Department for confirmation on what Rodriguez was carrying, but officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In 2013, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a ban on the sale of novelty lighters, including those shaped like guns. The law was not intended to prevent the lighters from being mistaken for real guns, but rather to lower their appeal to children. Lighters resembling guns were listed alongside ones that were shaped like cartoon characters or made sound effects.
A new law enacted in 2022 by Gov. Kathy Hochul placed a ban on “imitation weapons” that do not meet certain requirements, such as being brightly colored and having a closed barrel.
WXXI News has filed a Freedom of Information request for body-worn camera footage of the incident. Chief Long declined to release that footage, citing the ongoing investigations by the state Attorney General’s Office and the county Sheriff’s Office.
The Office of Special Investigations at Attorney General Letitia James’ Office opened its investigation into the shooting on Oct. 7. The office often releases body-worn camera footage before the probes are over, pending review by family, redaction of potentially sensitive information, and a variety of other factors.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office told WXXI News the Gates Police Department is free to release the video at their own discretion and does not need approval from the AG’s Office to do so.
A similar situation arose following the 2020 death of Daniel Prude, when Rochester police and the city administration withheld body camera footage of officers' interaction with Prude, citing the OSI’s policies. James, at the time, accused the city of using OSI policies as an “excuse” to withhold body-worn camera footage.
