Police in Gates are investigating two separate fatal shootings at warehouse facilities in Western New York that occurred just days apart. Authorities have confirmed the incidents are unrelated.
The first shooting happened on Thursday, July 24, outside the Amazon Fulfillment Center ROC1 on Manitou Road. Markis Ortiz-Harris, 24, from Rochester, was sitting in his car waiting to start work when a suspect approached and shot him. Ortiz-Harris was taken to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Police said there is no indication the shooter was an Amazon employee. The suspect fled the scene and remained at large as of Monday.
The second shooting took place on Saturday, July 26, inside the Wegmans distribution center on Brooks Avenue around 4:15 p.m. J’Mere Ridley-Smith, 25, also from Rochester, was found dead inside a cooler unit with multiple gunshot wounds. He had been loading pallets when the shooting occurred. The warehouse was briefly shut down and placed under a shelter-in-place order as police secured the area. Police said the shooting followed an argument between Ridley-Smith and the suspect in the facility’s parking lot, but the exact location of the shooting remains unclear.
The suspect, 32-year-old Kyshonn Green of Gates, fled New York shortly after the incident. Wegmans confirmed Green was an employee at the facility. Green was arrested without incident Sunday evening in Knoxville, Tennessee, by the U.S. Marshals Service. Investigators continue to work on determining the motive behind the shooting.
The Wegmans warehouse shutdown has caused disruptions across several local stores in Upstate New York, resulting in empty produce shelves that are expected to remain until midweek.
The shooting at the Amazon center marked the first homicide in Gates for 2025, followed by the fatal incident at the Wegmans facility two days later.