Syracuse, N.Y. — A small nonprofit organization that issued a last-minute OK for a gathering Saturday night that erupted into a mass shooting is having an emergency board meeting this morning to figure out what went wrong in the approval process.
At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the operations director for the Near West Side Initiative emailed tenants in the apartment complex near Performance Park, a square and theater near Wyoming and Marcellus streets.
The director apologized for the short notice and informed tenants of a “BLM (Black Lives Matter)” festival occurring between 4 and 9 p.m., according to an email obtained by syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
The event was not a Black Lives Matter rally. Instead, it was “Rye Day,” an annual birthday party that was kicked out of its previous home for the last decade on Syracuse Housing Authority property because of traffic and safety issues, according to the authority’s executive director. The five-hour event featured music, a cookout and other festivities.
As the event wrapped up around 9 p.m., dozens of gunshots rang out, likely from more than one shooter, officials have said. Nine people were injured, including a 17-year-old boy who is in critical condition. A motive has not been established yet, and no one has been arrested.
The Near West Side Initiative, a nonprofit organization, oversees use of the Performance Park lot and theater.
The Near West Side group’s board never reviewed the proposal for a party there, according to Board President Sheena Solomon. And it’s still unclear how the event ended up being described to tenants as a rally for the Black Lives Matter movement, which are occurring daily here and around the country, she said.
“Normally, the director would contact the board and say this is the event that was going on,” Solomon said. “This was a last-minute decision.”
That’s not to say that the board wouldn’t have approved a birthday party, she said. It regularly allows baby showers, parties and other joyful gatherings there. That’s the point of the space, and it would have been impossible to predict that a shooting like this would occur there, she said.
Gregorio Jimenez, the director, did not answer a Sunday night phone call seeking comment. He attended the gathering and had to take cover from gunfire, according to Solomon.
Joe Cecile, the Syracuse Police Department’s deputy chief, sits on the initiative’s board. Had the board considered the party proposal, Solomon said, she would have consulted with the deputy chief on whether moving the gathering was wise, especially in light of recent violence in Syracuse.
“I would have consulted Chief Cecile, because he knows more about the different areas. Does this make sense? Should we take extra precautions?” she said. “We have him as a resource on purpose.”
The organization has brought nearly $100 million into one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, transforming old factories into workspaces, apartments and other amenities, including Performance Park, which has a theater and an outdoor square.
The departure of former Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor in 2017 coincided with a severing of ties between the initiative and the university, which helped the organization with staff, funding, insurance and other logistics. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has cut the organization’s full-time staff to two, Solomon said.
City and police officials have said they did not have prior notice about the party.
The board meeting will also look into whether party organizers misled staff into thinking the event was something that it wasn’t.
Annetta Peterson, the mother of Ryedell Davis, did not respond to a call Sunday about how initiative staff might have thought the event was a Black Lives Matter festival instead of a birthday party.
Peterson previously said that the event was always peaceful and never drew this kind of violence until it moved to the Near West Side. She said she was packing up DJ equipment when the shots rang out, and she hid under her car until the scene was secure.
Bill Simmons, director of the Syracuse Housing Authority, said the authority prohibited “Rye Day” from occurring near South State Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard this weekend because of the congestion, traffic and safety concerns. It was never a sanctioned party and neighbors continually complained, he said.
Organizers of the event never told Simmons the proposed gathering at the housing authority was a Black Lives Matter rally, he said.
Solomon said she’d like to know if there was a miscommunication about the nature of the event. In addition to music and food, organizers also had a voter registration table, she said.
“I know that they were registering people to vote and all types of stuff like that as well,” she said. “So was it a mixture (of a party and a rally)? I’m trying to find those details.”
The meeting is at 8:30 a.m. today. It is not open to the public.
Contact reporter Patrick Lohmann at (315)766-6670 or via email at PLohmann@Syracuse.com.
Syracuse.com reporter Chris Libonati contributed to this report.